THE 



GREAT COMMISSION: 



OR, 



THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH CONSTITUTED AND CHARGED TO CONVEY 
THE GOSPEL TO THE WORLD. 



BY THE 



REV. JOHN HARRIS, D. D., 

I r 
AUTHOR Of " MAMMON," " THE GREAT TEACHER," ETC. 



INTRODUCTORY ESSAY, 



REV. WILLIAM R. WILLIAMS, D. D. 



«S cbentf) CT |)o usanft 



BOSTON: 

GOULD AND LINCOLN, 

59 WA SHINGTON STREET. 

1851. 



If 5*1 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year IB^, 

By Gould, Kendall, and Lincoln, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. 



cm 

Bertram Smith 
March IE, 1934 



STEREOTYPED AT THE 
BOSTON TYPE AND STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY. 



0° 

r 



x 



PREFATORY NOTICE 



BY 



THE ADJUDICATORS 



To the mind of the Christian philanthropist no subject can pos- 
sess a deeper interest than the state and prospects of the world in 
relation to the gospel of Christ; its state, as presenting, in the 
middle of the nineteenth century of the Christian era, so painfully 
mysterious, an extent of ignorance, ungodliness, and misery; its 
prospects, as assured, by the promises of the God of truth and 
mercy, of an approaching period of universal knowledge, love, purity, 
and happiness. Estimating the value of means by the value of the 
end to which they are subservient, the subject of missions to the 
heathen, for the subversion of false religions by the dhfusion and 
divine power of the true, cannot fail to hold a place preeminently 
high, in the minds of all who fear God, love the Savior, and desire 
the good of their race. 

Influenced by such convictions and feelings, " a few friends of the 
missionary enterprise in Scotland," connected with the Scottish 
Establishment, but modestly concealing their names, formed the pur- 
pose, between three and four years ago, of attempting the infusion of 
fresh spirit into the benevolent exertions of the Christian church at 
large, for the speedier evangelization of the world, by inviting a 
" friendly competition " of talent and piety, in the production of a 
work less ephemeral than " the many excellent sermons, tracts, and 



4 PREFATORY NOTICE BY THE ADJUDICATORS. 

pamphlets, which, during the last forty years, have appeared on the 
subject of missions to the heathen." With this view, these un- 
known philanthropists offered a prize of Two Hundred Guineas 
for the best, and another prize of Fifty Guineas for the second 
best, Essay on The Duty, Privilege, and Encouragement of 
Christians to send the Gospel of Salvation to the unen- 
lightened Nations of the Earth. The competition was under- 
stood to be confined within the limits of the United Kingdom. The 
extension of it to America was subsequently suggested ; but the sug- 
gestion, by whatever considerations recommended, came too late to 
admit of its being honorably adopted. 

The proposals issued were commended to public notice and Chris- 
tian interest by the signatures of three eminent ministers of the Es- 
tablished Church of Scotland — of whom one has since gone hence 
to receive the reward of a faithful servant — - the Rev. Dr. Chalmers, 
the late Rev. Dr. M'Gill, and the Rev. Dr. Duff. The Essays (with 
the usual precautions for the concealment of the writers' names) 
were to be submitted to the examination of Jive adjudicators, selected, 
on a principle of honorable liberality, from those bodies of Chris- 
tians with which stood associated the principal Missionary Institu- 
tions, — the two Established Churches of Scotland and England, the 
Wesleyan Methodists, the Independents, and the Baptists. Forty-two 
Essays were received, differing very widely indeed in character and 
claims, from some of an inferior order, rising through higher de- 
grees in the scale of merit, to a considerable number of sterling ex- 
cellence. Between several of these the Adjudicators found no little 
difficulty in coming to a decision; nor did they ultimately arrive at 
perfect unanimity. The Essay which is now presented to the public, 
the production of the Rev. Dr. John Harris, of Cheshunt College, 
was, after hesitation and correspondence, placed first by four Adjudi- 
cators out of the five ; and, by the same majority, the second place 
was assigned to the Essay which has found for its claimant the Rev 
Richard Winter Hamilton, of Leeds. 



PREFATORY NOTICE BY THE ADJUDICATORS. 5 

By one of the Adjudicators the first place was given to a different 
Essay from either of these ; which also, in the judgment of more 
than one of the rest, competed strongly for the second, as a treatise 
of great excellence. In these circumstances, the Committee, de- 
sirous to give the cause every possible advantage, resolved on offer- 
ing a distinct premium to its author, — subsequently discovered to 
be the Rev. John Macfarlane, minister of the parish of Collessie, 
Fife ; and, under their sanction, with the generous concurrence of 
the two successful competitors, and with the recommendation of such 
of the Adjudicators as felt themselves at liberty to give it, this Essay 
too will be published. 

The Adjudicators, influenced in their decision by the sentiment, 
arrangement, style, and comprehensiveness of the Essays, and by 
their general adaptation to the avowed object of the projectors of the 
prize, have given that decision in foro conscienticB ; and they now 
leave it, so far as opportunity for judgment is afforded, to the tribu- 
nal of public opinion. They consider it necessary, at the same time, 
to add, that having selected the Essays which appeared to them the 
best, they are by no means to be understood as, either collectively or 
individually, testifying approval of every view of opinion of their 
respective Authors. 

An apology is due, especially to the Essayists, for the long, and 
what to them must have been the somewhat vexatious delay on the 
part of the Adjudicators, in delivering their decision. Such apology 
they deem it sufficient thus to offer, on behalf of themselves, and of 
the Committee, without attempting any detail of explanation, how 
satisfactory soever such detail might be rendered. 

It now only remains that they breathe a united and fervent prayer 
for the success of this endeavor to advance the glory of God, and the 
happiness and salvation of men * T a prayer in which they invite their 
fellow-Christians of every denomination to join, — that the present 



• 



6 PREFATORY NOTICE BY THE ADJUDICATORS. 

Essay, as well as such others as may pass through the press, may, 
under the providence of the Divine Head of the Church, contribute 
to the further excitement of his people's zeal in this highest and best 
of causes ; and so may accelerate the arrival of that happy period, 
when his own gracious and faithful assurance, confirmed with his 
oath, and pregnant with so vast an amount of blessing to mankind, 
shall obtain its full realization, — " As surely as I live, all the earth 
shall be filled with my glory." 




Z£U J". 



PREFACE. 



If the writer may be allowed to engage the attention of 
his readers for a moment before they enter on the perusal 
of the following pages, his only aim in so doing will be to 
facilitate that perusal. 

Of course, his first object in preparing this Essay has 
been to comply with the requirements of the advertisement, 
which has, indirectly at least, occasioned its existence. His 
compliance with these, however, has not prevented him 
from aiming at a point higher still ; rather, it has formed 
the proper and natural ascent to it. That aim, he trusts, 
has imprinted its character, more or less visibly, on every 
portion of his work. He would briefly describe it as three- 
fold — and endeavor to show that the church of Christ is 
aggressive and missionary in its very constitution and de- 
sign : its "field is the world;" that it is to look on the 
whole of this field as one ; not regarding the claims of any 
particular portion as inimical to the interests of any other ; 
but viewing the divine command which obliges it to seek 
the salvation of any one individual, or the evangelization 
of any one country, as binding it to attempt the recovery 
of the whole world ; but that, in order to the accomplish- 
ment of this high design, more is necessary than mere ac- 



8 PREFACE. 

tivity; that the entire consecration of all its resources is, 
for obvious reasons, made indispensable to success. 

With this view, he has attempted to fill up the following 
outline. In the First Part, consisting of three chapters, 
his object has been to state and explain the Scrigture the- 
ory of Christian instrumentality; to show, by a general ex- 
amination of the Word of God, that this theory is there 
prescribed and made imperative ; and that the same divine 
authority predicts and promises its triumph in the conver- 
sion of the world. Thus, if the first chapter states the plan 
by which all the holy influences of the past should have 
been collected, multiplied, and combined, the Second ex- 
hibits and enforces the obligation of the present to that 
entire consecration which the plan supposes ; and the Third 
engages that such consecration shall certainly issue in the 
future and universal erection of the kingdom of Christ. 
Having thus, in the First Part, viewed the Missionary Enter- 
prise, generally, in its relations to the Word of God, the 
writer has proceeded, in the Second Part, to exhibit the 
benefits arising from Christian Missions, with the view of 
still further illustrating and enforcing their claims. This 
he has done in four chapters ; the first of which contains 
an historical sketch of the diffusion of Christianity, and 
of the rise and progress of Modern Missions, with a statisti- 
cal summary of their present state ; * the Second enumerates 



* Perhaps the reader, unacquainted with the fact, ought to be informed that the 
" Evidence on the Aborigines," which is frequently appealed to in this part of the 
work, was given before a committee of the House of Commons, by the secretaries 
of the Church Missionary Society, the Wesleyan Missionary Society, and London 
Missionary Society, and by other competent witnesses. 



PREFACE. 9 

the leading temporal and spiritual benefits accruing to the 
heathen from Missionary operations; the Third describes 
their reflex advantages, temporal and spiritual; and the 
Fourth shows that the History and Effects of the Mission- 
ary Enterprise illustrate every view of the theory of Chris- 
tian influence contained in the First Part, and supply a 
powerful inducement to the increase of missionary zeal. 
The Third Part exhibits the various sources of encourage- 
ment — historical and political, moral, ecclesiastical, and evan- 
gelical — which urge and animate Christians to advance in 
their missionary career. In the Fourth Part, he has endeav- 
ored to show that every objection to their course becomes, 
when rightly considered, an argument to redouble their efforts. 
But the Fifth Part ascertains the existence of a great defect 
— of the want of that entireness of consecration to their 
missionary office which is indispensable to complete success, 
and points out the various requisites which such consecra- 
tion includes, and would infallibly supply. "While the Sixth 
Part enforces the principal Motives which should induce 
their entire devotedness to the great objects of the Mission- 
ary Enterprise. 

Such, indeed, is the surpassing grandeur of the object 
of Christian missions, as to render any thing like justice 
to its merits impossible. Yet the writer feels humbled that 
the present contribution should fall so far short, even of 
his own conception, of what such a work might and ought 
to be. He is proportionally delighted, therefore, that since 
it was submitted for competent adjudication, so many able 
works on missions should have issued from the press as 



10 PREFACE. 

to render specification difficult ; and especially that, be- 
sides having for its precursor the very seasonable and pow- 
erful production of the Rev. Dr. John Campbell, it should 
be accompanied, or speedily followed, by the publications of 
his well-known, able, and beloved friend, the Rev. R. W. 
Hamilton, of Leeds ; and of the Rev. John M'Farlane. 

Evident as it is that a crisis in the Missionary Enterprise 
approaches — a crisis created partly by its successes abroad, 
and by its reflex operation in calling into existence other 
societies at home, which divide with it the contributions of 
the faithful — his earnest prayer to God is, that this Essay, 
in connection with those of his Christian brethren referred 
to, may be among the means employed to convert that crisis 
into a blessing — the commencement of a new era of mis- 
sionary prosperity. 

Cheshunt College, 
Feb. 12, 1842. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE. 

INTRODUCTION * 17—36 



PART I 



THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE VIEWED GENERALLY IN 
ITS RELATION TO THE WORD OF GOD. 



CHAPTER I 

THE SCRIPTURE THEORY OF CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY FOR 
THE CONVERSION OF THE WORLD STATED AND EXPLAINED. 

I. Mutual dependence and influence the law of the universe. II. Its perversion 
by sin. III. Its restoration by Christ. IV. The plan of its operation in the 
Christian church for the recovery of the world. 1. How it begins with the 
individual convert — 2. Proceeds through him to the formation of a particular 
church — 3. Leads to the formation of other churches, and unites the whole 
in one body — 4. The Spirit preceding and pervading it to give it effect 

V. In this organization, every thing becomes an element of influence, congenial 
with the cross, and subordinate to it. 

Knowledge — Speech — Relationships — Property — Self-denial — Compassion — Per- 
severance in Christian activity — Prayer— -Union 37—74 



12 CONTENTS 



CHAPTER II. 

THIS THEORY ILLUSTRATED AND ENFORCED FROM THE PRECEPTS 
AND EXAMPLES OF THE WORD OF GOD. 

1. From the paternal character of the antediluvian economy — 2. The migratory 
character of the Abrahamic — 3. The national and stationary character of the 
Mosaic — 4. The life and character of Christ — 5. The agency of the Holy 
Spirit — 6. The commands of Christ, direct or implied — 7. The first mission- 
ary — 8. The first missionary church — 9. The tenor of the epistles — 10. Forms 
part of a universal plan, which includes the agency of angels — 11. And which 
devolves and accumulates all the moral influences of the church from age to 
age 75-114 



CHAPTER III. 

ILLUSTRATED AND ENFORCED FROM PROPHECY. 

1. Does prophecy afford any glimpses of the ultimate results of such instrumen- 
tality? — 2. Will the final triumph of Christianity be in any way indebted to 
such agency? — 3. Circumstances which now render this inquiry peculiarly 
important — 4. Millenarianism (as popularly understood) unfriendly to mission- 
ary activity. 

I. Millenarian doctrine at variance with some of the leading principles of divine 

truth — 1. With the fact that divine commands imply the promise of aid and 
success — 2. With the sincerity of the divine character — 3. With the divine 
benignity — 4. With the ordinary and wise reserve of Scripture — 5. And is 
derogatory to the dispensation of the Spirit. , 

II. Not warranted by prophecy. III. The enlargement of the church resulting 

from Christian activity. IV. This view corroborated by every part of the 
Word of God by which its correctness can be fairly tested. V. The whole 
harmonized with the foregoing parts, and applied 114—147 



CONTENTS. 13 



PART II. 



THE BENEFITS OF THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE, 



CHAPTER I. 

THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 

I. The state of the church has varied in proportion as it has heen faithful or other- 
wise to its missionary design. II. Progress of Christianity through the succes- 
sive ages of the Christian era — 1. Sixteenth century, or reformation within 
the church — 2. Seventeenth century, or period of missionary preparation and 
promise — 3. Eighteenth century, or period of missionary association — 4. Nine- 
teenth century, or period of missionary enterprise. 

Ill Events which may be regarded as dividing the brief history of modern missions 
into epochs. IV. Statistical summary 148 — 162 



CHAPTER II. 

ADVANTAGES OF THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE TO THE HEATHENS. 



SECTION I. 

TEMPORAL BENEFITS. 

What it has done in this respect for the various nations of Christendom — 1. Some 
islands owe their discovery to it — 2. Wandering tribes localized — 3. Taught 
useful arts and trades — 4. Languages reduced to a written form — 5. Educa- 
tion given — 6. Laws and government instituted — 7. Morality promoted — 
8. Checked depopulation and prevented extinction — 9. Mediated between 
hostile tribes, and prevented sanguinary conflicts — 10. Retrieved their slan- 
dered mental character — 11. Protected the oppressed, liberated the enslaved — 
12. Various evils blotted out — 13. Elevating effect on the character and social 
rank of woman j general views of temporal benefits j benefits unascertained 
greater still r . 162—183 

2 



14 CONTENTS. 

SECTION II. 

RELIGIOUS BENEFITS. 

1. Abolished idolatry— 2. Imparted Christian instruction — 3. Alleviated moral 
miseries — 4. Instrumentally converted and saved many — 5. Bibles; ordi- 
nances; churches — 6. Accessions to the church above 184—190 



CHAPTER III. 

THE REFLEX BENEFITS OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 



SECTION I. 

TEMPORAL ADVANTAGES. 

These afford a fine illustration of the remunerative influence of benevolence — 
1. Rendered great service to literature and science — 2. Corrected and enlarged 
our views of the character and condition of man — 3. Vindicated our own 
character in the eyes of the heathen — 4. Preserved European life — 5. Bene- 
fited our commerce — 6. And shipping 191 — 199 



SECTION II. 

RELIGIOUS BENEFITS. 

Broke up the prevailing monotony of the religious community — 2. Enlivened the 
piety of Christians, and increased their happiness — 3. Produced denomina- 
tional emulation among them — 4. Led to the formation of other institutions — 
5. Taught us that the cause of religion, abroad and at home, is one — 6. Great- 
ly enlarged our Christian views — 7. Promoted sympathetic union of Chris- 
tians — 8. Increased pecuniary liberality — 9. Awakened and cherished a spirit 
of prayer — 10. Produced noble specimens of Christian character — 11. Shown 
us the practicability of the missionary enterprise, and impressed us with our 
individual obligation to espouse it — 12. Disarmed infidelity of its principal 
weapon — 13. Promoted biblical study — increased the evidences of Chris- 
tianity—and deepened our confidence in the divinity of its character and the 
certainty of its triumphs — 14. Been the means of converting many of our 
countrymen abroad and at home — 15. And, in various ways, eminently glo- 
rified God » 200—221 



CONTENTS. 15 



CHAPTER IV. 

ARGUMENT DERIVED FROM THE EENEFITS OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 
FOR THE INCREASED ACTIVITY OF THE CHURCH. 

I. Our missionary success fully proportioned to our efforts. II. Advantages have 
flowed from them which nothing else could have conferred. III. The history 
of modern missions illustrates every part of the theory of Christian, influence. 
IV. Supplies a powerful motive to the increase of our missionary zeal. 221— 235 



PART III. 

ENCOURAGEMENTS OF CHRISTIANS TO PROSECUTE THE 
MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 

I. Encouragement from the history of Christianity. U. Encouragement from the 
political aspect of the world. III. Encouragement from the moral state of 
the world. IV. Encouragement from the state of the Protestant churches. 
V. Encouragement from the word of God. 

Connection with the preceding parts, and application of the whole ..... 236 — 271 



PART IV. 



OBJECTIONS TO THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 

I. The missionary enterprise unnecessary — the heathen safe. II. The mission- 
ary enterprise impracticable. III. Civilization should precede Christianity. 
IV. We have " heathen enough at home." V. We have not the necessary 
funds. VI. Of no avail, till Christians are united. VII. Of no avail, till the 
"personal reign" of Christ. VIII. The time is not yet come — "must not 
take God's work out of his hands," &c. &c. 

Reflections 272—301 



16 CONTENTS. 



PART V. 

THE WANTS OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, AS A MISSION- 
ARY SOCIETY, EXAMINED. 

Found to consist, generally, in the want of entire devotedness to its office — 1. More 
particularly in deep humility — 2. In the due appreciation of the spiritual 
nature of its office — 3. A clear conception and vivid conviction of the mis- 
sionary constitution of the Christian church— 4. Missionary information should 
be more widely circulated, and more seriously pondered — 5. A greater depth 
of personal piety — 6. Holy wisdom to mark and improve the movements of 
Providence — 7. Greater devotedness to the missionary object among ministers 
at home — 8. Christian union — 9. Greater pecuniary liberality — 10. Mission- 
ary laymen — 11. Energy and zeal — 12. Prayer 

The whole applied to the enforcement of entire consecration 302 — 347 



PART VI. 

MOTIVES TO ENFORCE ENTIRE DEVOTEDNESS TO THE 
MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 

1. To retrieve, if possible, the evil effects of past neglect — 2. As the only alterna- 
tive of partial hostility against Christ, at present — 3. The state of the heathen 
requires it — 4. The remarkable manner in which Providence is calling for it — 
5. Some have thus devoted themselves — 6. It is only a devoted church that is 
prepared to turn the characteristics of the age, change and transition, to a scrip- 
tural account — 7. We are likely to impart our character to the future — 8. Noth- 
ing done for Christ is lost — 9. All things belong to him — 10. The claim of 
redemption — 11. The relative object of redemption — 12. It would complete 
the honor of the gospel — 13 Our regard for the glory of God requires it — 
14. And it would be the completion of human happiness. 

Conclusion 348—393 



INTRODUCTION 



It is mentioned by Andrew Fuller, that he had thought of pre- 
paring a new system of theology, in which the atonement of Christ 
should be made the central truth, and all the other doctrines of reli- 
gion be interwoven into the treatise in their relations to the great 
fact of man's redemption. Blending as his mind did such clearness 
and such force, we might have well expected that any work it should 
have produced upon this plan would have been of great value. It is 
one of the excellences which distinguish the present essay on Mis- 
sions, that its eloquent author has commenced the discussion of his 
theme at this same point ; viewed our world, as the field of mission- 
ary toil, through the atmosphere of Gethsemane and Calvary ; and 
labored, as the apostles in their day also did, to set before the church 
" the love of Christ," not only as the motive of effort, but as the 
model of all our plans and sacrifices. A more unreserved surrender 
by Christians of their faculties, their substance, and their influence, 
into the hands of Him who bought them with his own blood, — a life 
of closer communion with our Lord, and of more entire conformity 
to his image, — is the great deficiency of the church, in our times. 
Were it attained, a thousand errors would disappear, without further 
controversy ; the efforts of the church would be at once infinitely 
augmented, even without the addition of one convert to the ranks of 
her present laborers ; and her power over the world would become 
alike incalculable and irresistible. 

The writer of these remarks would not assume to himself the task, 
to which he feels himself so unequal, of discussing afresh any of the 
topics so ably handled in the present work, to which he has con- 
sented, at the request of the American publishers, to furnish an In- 
troduction. But it will be observed by an attentive reader, that there 
are questions regarding the missionary enterprise, which the author 
did not consider as falling within the limits of the plan he had pre- 
scribed for himself, symmetrical and comprehensive as that plan is. 
To some of these he alludes, as " questions of surpassing interest," 
and as being topics " which are likely, at no distant time, to force 
themselves on our attention in a mariner for which previous consid- 
eration, and devout inquiry of God, can alone prepare us." * He 



* Page 319. 



18 INTRODUCTION. 

speaks of them as clothed " with growing interest ; " and although, 
from various causes, it might be inexpedient that the work he has so 
ably prepared should enter formally into the examination of these 
topics, they are some of them practical questions, which are each 
day pressing themselves with added momentum and greater weight 
on the attention of the churches. The past history of the Christian 
church may aid us in part to obtain the solution of some of these 
problems ; for the annals of the world and the church are but the 
book of " Providence teaching by examples." And if, with regard 
to others, a satisfactory decision seems more remote, yet there are 
contingencies, in which even conjectures may not be without their 
value. When Napoleon, with his staff, was crossing an arm of the 
Red Sea, and the waters were found to be rising, while the shades 
of night were gathering around them, and the French general saw 
himself menaced with the fate of Pharaoh, he displayed his preemi- 
nent sagacity by the orders which he gave. Checking his own 
horse, and remaining stationary, he ordered each of his attendants to 
ride onward to the several points in that circle of which he was the 
centre. He who found the water becoming shoal, was to call on all 
the rest to turn and follow him. Yet it is sufficiently evident, that 
in thus effecting an escape to the shore, all were instrumental, — 
they who found themselves swimming, in the deeper waters, as well 
as he who happened to turn his horse's head towards the land. In 
the discovery of the true and safe path in some moral enterprise, the 
process pursued by the investigator must often be an exhaustive one. 
He must consider and review all the possible forms that may be sug- 
gested, in order to acquaint himself with their relative merits and 
defects. And in carrying forward to its triumphant accomplishment 
the present missionary enterprise of the church, occasions will be 
found, when a calm estimate of all the doubts and difficulties which 
seem to hide the path of duty will be doubly beneficial. Such ex- 
amination will call out the wisdom and exercise the prudence of the 
church ; and drive her also, under the deepening sense of her own 
ignorance and insufficiency, to that mercy-seat which she has never 
sought in vain. 

And in tl^e discussion of such questions, the Christians of our own 
country have a peculiar and hereditary interest. America was long 
to the Christians of Europe the field of missionary effort. Columbus, 
its discoverer, was strongly actuated by the prophecies he was wont 
so intently to study, and by the hopes he cherished of extending here 
the kingdom of Christ. In the mind of his patron, the Queen of 
Spain, the conversion of the heathen to Christianity was an object 
" paramount to all the rest." * And Protestantism vied with Roman- 
ism in endeavors to establish on our shores Christian colonies. The 
brave and devout Coligny, while heading the Protestants of France, 
labored to plant the faith in either portion of our continent, in Brazil 
to the south, as in Florida to the north, although in each case in vain. 



* Prescott's Ferdinand and Isabella, vol. ii. 496. 



INTRODUCTION. 19 

The Puritan Fathers of New England were more successful, and the 
world is yet wondering at the rapid development each new genera- 
tion is making of the influence those Christians exercised. Some of 
the strongest and noblest minds of Europe looked intently to our 
country as the scene of missions. Such were Cromwell, and Boyle, 
and Berkeley, in England. Such was Fenelon, one of whose youthful 
schemes it was, to become himself a missionary in Canada, then a 
French province.* Amongst ourselves, too, God raised up mission- 
aries, at a time when the Protestants of Europe were comparatively 
inactive in this work. Our Eliot, our May hews, and our Brainerd, 
labored long and devoutly. The memoirs of the latter, especially, 
served to excite the zeal and to mould the character of William 
Carey and of Hemy Martyn, two of the most honored names among 
the modern missionaries of Great Britain. And in our OAvn times, 
the Great Head of the church has given to the Christians of this 
land, among those whose work is now ended, and those who yet toil 
in the mission field, some names not likely to be forgotten as long as 
the earthly church has a history and a being. As the children of a 
soil which the Christians of Europe thus sought to evangelize ; as the 
descendants of those who labored when the Protestants of the Old 
World were comparatively inefficient ; as the compatriots of those 
who have left their bones in Asia, in Africa, and in the islands of 
the sea, taking possession thus for Christ and his church of the 
countries of the heathen, — American Christians have an undeniable 
interest in the examination of every scheme and every question that 
bear directly or indirectly on the great duty of evangelizing the world. 
They are thus repaying the debt they owe to the Christians of 
other nations ; asserting anew the principles of their forefathers long 
since gathered to their rest, and guarding also the memory of their 
brethren who have more recently fallen in the missionary field. In 
the discussion, too, of some of these questions, the Christians of this 
country have stores of experience that are peculiarly their own, and 
that are not equally accessible to their fellow-Christians in Europe. 
We need but name the power of the voluntary principle, as seen 
amongst us in the support of religion and its institutions ; and the 
exemption of our churches alike from the oppressions of the state, as 
dissenters, and from its patronage, as an establishment, — evils felt 
by our brethren in the foreign as well as in the home field. 

1. A question of great moment, that has within the last few years 
perplexed the missionary bodies both of the Old and New World, is 
that of the mode in which funds may be secured, adequate to the 
support of the missions which the providence of God has cast upon 
them. And these missions need not only to be sustained, but the 
wants of the heathen and the commands of the gospel join with the 
invitations of Divine Providence to require that they should be widely 
extended. This was a difficulty which the earlier friends of modern 
missions scarce anticipated as one that could by any possibility 



* Bausset, Hist, de Fenelon. 



20 INTRODUCTION. 

occur. Such, at least, was the sentiment of Fuller. In a letter of 
advice to a friend, who had commenced a society for the evangeliza ■ 
tion of Ireland, he recurs to his own experience in the work of prop- 
agating the gospel in India. " Be more anxious to do the work than 
to get money. If the work be done, and modestly and faithfully re- 
ported, money will come. We have never had occasion to ask for 
money, but once . . . The first contributions at your meeting were 
much beyond £13 2s. 6d., with which we commenced. Money was 
one of the least of our concerns ; we never doubted, that if, by the 
good hand of our God upon us, we could do the work, the friends of 
Christ would support us." * Yet, within a short time, we have seen 
schools disbanded, the cries of missionaries for assistants in their 
labor disregarded, and our Missionary Boards compelled, by the 
dread of bankruptcy at home, when the loud summons of Providence 
called them to enter upon the widening and whitening fields ripe for 
the harvest, to meet the call with the complaint, that an exhausted 
treasury left them no means for enlarging, scarce even of sustaining, 
their present endeavors. Various modes have indeed been attempt- 
ed, and not without some measure of success, to remedy this dis- 
tressing state of affairs. Among the most promising are, perhaps, 
the appeals made through Sabbath schools to the younger members 
of the church. The Wesleyans of England, and the London Mis- 
sionary Society, have both received large and efficient aid from these 
sources. Under the auspices of the latter body have been lately 
prepared a series of missionary works for the use of children. The 
method has the advantage of not only creating in the minds of the 
young habits of liberality likely to grow with their growth, but of 
also training up many to become themselves missionaries, dedicated 
with " the dew of their youth " upon them to the service of Christ 
among the far heathen. Amid all the worldliness of which the 
church must yet complain, it is yet a truth, equally gratifying and 
indisputable, that the standard of liberality in the Christians of the 
age is rising. Though, yet, far beneath the measure of the primitive 
disciples, it is certainly much in advance of what was seen but a 
few years since. Even the very deficiencies, of which the various 
evangelical bodies of our time complain, in the funds required for 
their missions, grow in part out of the rapid development and in- 
crease those missions have experienced. Some have proposed to 
keep down the expenditures of the church in the mission work, until 
a time of higher devotedness on the part of Christians shall have 
arrived. This course seems indefensible, whether we look to human 
nature or to Scripture. The souls of men are not likely to be stirred 
to support adequately a work, even in its present state, unless it gives 
signs of continued advancement. And continued advancement in 
the work of evangelization inevitably brings an increase of expendi- 
ture. Success is necessary to sympathy and support, and success 
itself involves growing liabilities and widening efforts. Such re- 



Letter of Fuller to Ivimey, dated Kettering, April 22, 1814. 



INTRODUCTION. 21 

trenchment is, above all, indefensible, if we look to the Book we are 
commending to the heathen. Legible on the last — the outermost 
fold of Matthew's Gospel, where hangs the very seal of the minister's 
commission, stands the precept, " Go ye into all the world" Would 
the church obliterate or conceal that irksome commandment? In 
doing so, she must also erase the promise that accompanies it — " Lo, 
lam with you always, even unto the end of the world" She cannot 
abridge her task without renouncing her helper, and foregoing the 
promised presence of her Lord. Ruinous, indeed, would that econ- 
omy be, which should bar out the Redeemer from his own church, 
as too exacting and expensive a guest. The church has abundant 
resources, and it needs but a higher grade of piety, and a juster 
sense of duty, to reach them. Systematic contributions on the part 
of all, of every age and of every condition, would give the funds 
needed, and funds so given would be abundantly blessed. Might 
not a literal return to the primitive rule of laying by on each Sab- 
bath day, as God hath prospered us, largely swell the missionary 
revenues of the church ? Frequent and small gains, in their aggre- 
gate, always exceed large sums obtained at longer intervals. The 
poorest might give without inconvenience, in weekly payments, a 
sum which in its yearly amount they would never think of contribut- 
ing. The sacredness of the Sabbath, and its softening and elevat- 
ing associations, might tend also to make the richer Christian more 
liberal than he would be if solicited amid the cares and hardening 
influences of the week. And, again, the principle of giving as God 
has prospered seems to imply a grateful acknowledgment thus to be 
made of mercies received since the past Sabbath, the rearing, week 
by week, of a new Ebenezer along the pathway of life. It is but 
too evident that feelings of thankfulness, like all other passive im- 
pressions, are easily effaced, and can only with difficulty be pre- 
served in their original freshness. A deliverance received, an un- 
expected accession of property, the recovery from the verge of the 
grave of a beloved child, — are all blessings likely to be more justly 
appreciated and more liberally acknowledged, in the devout medita- 
tions of the Sabbath immediately succeeding the bestowment of the 
benefit, than when we come at the year's end to review them as they 
are seen faintly and afar through the mists of distance. Were the 
periods of Christian liberality thus made more frequent, on the part 
of the opulent especially, large sums, again, that now go to swell the 
capital of an estate, and as such are never to be touched by the hand 
of almsgiving, would be kept, where they belong, in the place of 
profits, gained by the blessing of Providence, and which it would be 
felt are to be liberally dispensed at the command of the Father in 
heaven who gave them. And we doubt not that the church is yet 
to witness the pouring of entire fortunes into her treasury, upon the 
return of that primitive spirit, which of old laid the price of houses 
and lands at the apostle's feet. 

2. A question yet remaining in some obscurity, though the course 
of events has thrown increasing light upon it, is, that of the best form 



22 INTRODUCTION. 

of missionary labor. The error once so prevalent, that civilization 
must precede conversion, is now weli nigh exploded. Once it 
seemed so certain a truth, that the acute mind of Warburton ad- 
duced it as a reason, why Protestant missions had been compara- 
tively inefficient, that they had overlooked the absolute necessity of 
civilization to prepare the way for the gospel.* But, in the work of 
commending the word of God to a heathen people, what proportion 
of the labor should be given to schools, what to translations, and the 
care of the press, and what to preaching, seems a more difficult in- 
quiry. Reason, Scripture, and experience, all seem to require that 
the living preacher should be the chief and foremost instrumentality 
upon which the church should rely ; while there are circumstances 
and seasons that may require the church to make large efforts and 
expenditures 'for the instruction of the young through schools, and to 
supply a nation of readers with Christian books ; as, in yet other sit- 
uations, much attention may be justly given to the instruction of a 
nation, emerging from barbarism, in the use of the plough, and the 
shuttle, and the various arts that go to adorn and enrich the Chris- 
tian home. But whatever may be urged in commendation of other 
modes of presenting the gospel, the preaching of the word has an 
honor that is put upon no other instrumentality ; in its having been 
the form of our Lord's own labors while on the earth, and in its se- 
lection by him, as the means which he commanded the church to 
employ, and which, in his promises, he specifically bound himself to 
bless. It was in its use that Christianity won its earliest and most 
glorious victories. Ere yet a single book of the New Testament 
had been written, it was by the use of preaching that the apostles 
had already, as their enemies alleged, < ; filled all Jerusalem with their 
doctrine." Philosophy had her lectures, given in the grove, or the 
garden, or the porch, to her select auditors, « fit and few," and given 
only for pay. She had never dreamed of bringing down the loftiest 
truths to an indiscriminate audience, and that without fee or reward. 
But by what the wise of this world deemed eminently " the foolish- 
ness of preaching" the new religion overturned their power and scat- 
tered their dreams. The church of the first century was not com- 
paratively a church of writers, and hence the remains of primitive 
antiquity are scanty in amount, and often breathe a rude simplicity ; 
but, though the writings of the new sect were few, the devout and 
fearless preacher was every where, and hence it was that one of the 
Fathers spoke soon of the Christian church as being found every 



* Even yet, the error lingers in quarters where it was scarce to be expected, amid 
all the blaze of recent missionary experience on this subject. Bloomfield, in his 
Recensio Synoplica on Hebrews 5 : 12, has said, " The Christian religion may be said 
to form a kind of science ; for which very reason (and would that some who have a 
zeal, but not according to knowledge, would bear it in mind) civilization ought ever 
to precede evangelization." The Italics are his own. To us, we must say, the remark 
displays as little of knowledge as of zeal. The principle it asserts has been dis- 
proved in either hemisphere, and under every zone, from Greenland to Brazil, amid 
the Caffres and. the Karens, the inhabitants of New Zealand and those of the Sand- 
wich Islands. 



INTRODUCTION. 23 

where, in the city and the village, in the army, the senate, and the 
forum. In the growth of anti-Christian delusion and imposture, the 
pulpit lost its legitimate influence ; and the Reformation early dis- 
tinguished itself by the new impulse which it gave to preaching, not 
merely among the Protestant nations of Europe, but even in the 
bosom of the Romish church. It was preaching, carried back yet 
one step nearer the apostolic model, in its being grafted upon a sys- 
tem of itineracy, which, in the shape of Methodism, broke up the 
dreamy slumber of the English Established Church, and carried the 
light of the gospel into the most neglected recesses of the island. 

We would not diminish in the least the just claims of the press, 
that instrument by which such preachers as Baxter are yet uttering 
their message with a voice that death cannot still ; nor forget the 
honor due to schools, for which that devoted missionary, our own 
Eliot, was accustomed so fervently and frequently to pray. But over 
the written page, the living preacher has ever this preeminent ad- 
vantage. He varies his message to his varying auditory ; he reaches 
the prejudiced who will not, and the illiterate who cannot read ; he 
commends his errand to the heathen by the voice and the look, and 
all those signs of human sympathy that no literature can paint, no 
powers of the press transfer into written characters. Yet, beyond all 
this, he is himself the living imbodiment of the truth that he pub- 
lishes, a speaking model of the peace which he promises, the patience 
that he commands, and the self-denial and the charity his religion is 
to produce. And beside this, he is himself, if a man of God, the 
partaker of that Spirit whose blessing alone can render any human 
efforts successful to the conversion of souls. Taught by that Spirit, 
he follows, which the tract cannot do, his message with his prayers, 
and steeps thus the seed which he scatters in the quickening dews 
of heaven. Over schools, the preaching of the gospel has the ad- 
vantage of its aiming directly at the grand end of missions, the sal- 
vation of the nation, while the school-teacher seeks the same end 
circuitously, and with much consequent loss of time and labor. The 
preacher addresses the adult generation, in whose hands the power 
and character of the country lie ; the teacher acts upon the young, 
whose present influence is circumscribed, and whose future influence 
we cannot safely count upon, when removed from the restraints of 
the academy, and flung into the midst of a heathen society which 
outnumbers, corrupts, and overwhelms them, just so far as their char- 
acter is merely the result of education, and not the result of that 
renewing grace which the preacher seeks to impart to the parent, 
the youth, and the child, alike. Preaching is, as Francis Xavier 
called it, Ci a universal good" — that Xavier whose own influence was 
at once so wide and powerful, and in whose character and history 
there is so much for the devout Protestant to emulate ; even while 
he may listen incredulously to the claims set up for him by a brother 
Jesuit, the eloquent Bourdaloue, that he preached the gospel in fifty- 
two kingdoms, and over more than three thousand leagues of terri- 
tory, and baptized with his own hands a million of pagans.* 

* Bourdaloue, ii. 510. 



24 INTRODUCTION. 

The most successful missions would seem as yet to have been in- 
sular, or if situated on the main land, where the same class of popu- 
lation was found as is generally to be seen in an island, a people in 
some measure isolated from others, and having one, homogeneous 
character, such as is not to be discovered in nations inhabiting wider 
districts, and left more free to roam into other countries. Such an 
isolation is found, for instance, in the Karen, and the Greenlander, 
although not an insular people. 

That the ministry should as early as possible, and as soon as is 
consistent with purity of doctrine and the safety of the mission 
churches, be furnished by the nation itself, seems a principle in which 
all are agreed. The work of carrying forward the evangelization of 
a country to its last stages must fall ultimately on the converts them- 
selves, and the native preacher complete what the foreign evangelist 
has begun. 

3. We are thus led to another question : The period at which a 
tribe or country shall be considered as competent to meet their own 
spiritual wants, and cease to be the charge of the Missionary Society 
that first brought to them the gospel. With the increase in numbers 
and in liberality of the native churches, there are portions of the mis- 
sion field that seem approaching to that state when the pecuniary 
burdens of the mission might well be assumed by themselves. But 
could they yet dispense with the superior knowledge, experience, and 
prudence of the foreign Christians, to whose zeal they owe the first 
proclamation of the gospel amongst them ? Yet, on the other hand, 
it seems clear that the very spirit of the gospel forbids their being 
kept in dependence upon foreign guidance and support longer than 
is absolutely inevitable. There are faculties in the man that can 
only be developed by his passing from the state of pupilage, and 
being left to buffet the difficulties of life with his own solitary en- 
ergy. A nation cannot, if educated and enterprising, long remain 
happy, or make the due development of their resources, while they 
remain the colonies of a distant empire, legislating always in igno- 
rance of their wants, and often in selfish disregard of their interests. 
It was necessary to our own progress as a people, that the bonds 
which attached iis to a distant island should be severed, ere our 
broad territory could be cultivated, or our physical and moral re- 
sources be properly ascertained and wisely directed. Is not the 
principle that applies to the individual and the nation a principle 
striking deep its roots into the nature of man, and applicable there- 
fore, in its due measure, to the church also ? The churches at home 
may not yet have the knowledge of facts requisite to define the 
period when missionary supervision should cease, and a nation pass 
from the ranks of those receiving, to the number of those giving mis- 
sionary instruction. That such relinquishment of care and control 
on the part of the Missionary Society should be delayed until the 
land is entirely evangelized would seem unreasonable. Perhaps — for 
our God is one wondrous in working — controversies and schisms may 
be in such circumstances permitted, and by his skill be overruled to 



INTRODUCTION. . 25 

effect, as revolutions have done in the political world, those changes 
in the moral world, which, from our reluctance to accomplish them 
peaceably, he brings to pass by a stern and salutary violence. Thus 
it was that persecutions scattered widely the burning brands of the 
apostolic church, from that church at Jerusalem where they were 
blazing as on a quiet hearth, and wasting alike their warmth and 
their lustre, to spread them over the face of distant lands, where 
otherwise they might never have kindled the light of their testi- 
mony. And thus, too, even the sharp contentions that parted Paul 
and Barnabas were but as a feeble blast, falling upon a recent con- 
flagration, and driving it rapidly to distant parts it might else never 
have reached. 

4. A question which we do not remember to have seen discussed 
is, that of the circumstances which may be considered as rendering 
a field inaccessible, or which require those who have attempted its 
culture to abandon it as hopeless. Does the Providence of God yet 
speak distinctly at times, as of old his Spirit once spake to apostles, 
forbidding them to go into Asia ? If so, what are the indications- 
which must bear so sad an interpretation, and require the church to 
leave the adversary for a time in the unmolested possession of his 
prey, while they place the land so relinquished for a time beyond the 
range of the church's sympathies and prayers. In the East and in 
the West are seen fields of mission effort once attempted, but now 
lying fallow. The Mahometan nations are at this time the subject 
of little direct missionary labor. China, in its vast interior territory, 
has been regarded by the Protestant churches as closed against their 
missionaries. Romanism has her missionaries there, as Wiseman 
boasts of them, each one " working with the axe suspended over his 
head." # They secured their admission, it is to be feared, by arts 
little consistent with Christian integrity. But from the strict and 
sanguinary vigilance that guards Japan against the missionary of the 
cross, even that proselyting communion has shrunk back appalled. 
Pursuing the same train of thought, it may be asked, What is the 
amount of peril to health or life, that constitutes a barrier which the 
church is not required to scale? Persecuted in one city, Christ 
required them to flee to another ; and when it is viewed in this light, 
the passion for martyrdom boasted of in the Romish church, is seen, 
in the character of the church of the fifth and sixth centuries, as 
compared with the church of the first century, to be the mark of 
growing superstition and declining piety. But when the Savior en- 
joined flight from one town to some other less inhospitable, did the 
permission to quit a city imply the right to quit the entire country ? 
Again, it may be asked, what is the delay of success and the term 
of fruitless effort, that entitles a missionary colony to return to their 
native soil, and to pronounce a field reprobate, and given over to 
burning ? Dubois, after long acquaintance with India, and personal 
toil as a missionary, which gained for him, according to a despatch 



* Wiseman, Lect. on Doctrines and Practices of the Catholic Church. 

3 



26 INTRODUCTION. 

of the British Governor in Council, " a degree of respect among both 
Europeans and natives rarely equalled," yet saw so little true piety 
in the churches, upon which his church had bestowed the toils of 
two centuries, and boasted, meanwhile, most loudly of her success, 
that he supposed the people reprobate of God.* What are the con- 
siderations which authorize a Protestant Christian, studying his duty 
from the Scriptures, to rest in a similar conclusion ? 

5. The union of the several evangelical denominations to carry 
forward more successfully the mission work, has been early and 
often proposed. The gifted Isaac Taylor had a scheme for the adop- 
tion, by common consent of British Christians, of Episcopacy as the 
basis of such united action. Harris himself, in the present work, 
seems to consider the establishment of the London Missionary So- 
ciety as forming a new era in the history of missions, because of its 
inviting the cooperation of the various evangelical sects. Various 
Protestant writers have presented their schemes for the coalescence 
of the several Christian churches in missions. Nor have these 
churches only discussed it. A Romish bishop, of our own country, 
has suggested it to at least one body of Protestant Christians, as 
being indispensable to success in foreign missions.f To us, we 
must confess, the necessity of a formal union seems never yet to 
have been made out. The present state of the church seems clearly 
to render it impracticable ; and even were it feasible, there are con- 
siderations which lead us to doubt whether it were desirable. The 
nominal unity of the Romish church, to many a mind so strong an 
argument for her claims to supremacy, is notoriously no safeguard 
against controversies the most bitter, and rivalries the most relent- 
less, between the several orders that shelter themselves beneath the 
seamless mantle of their one common mother. There are existing 
evils in the church which no union, merely formal, could heal. 
There are others which the existence of such union would surely 
aggravate into tenfold virulence. The peaceable separation of 
Christian sects, holding the same Head, and exchanging, over the 
lines of party enclosure, the greetings of Christian brotherhood, is 
not -as formidable an evil as it is often represented. And every 
scheme we remember to have seen for effecting a union, in the 
present state of the several churches, has proceeded on the principle 
of expediency. We do not see how Protestants, recognizing the 
paramount authority of the Scriptures, and making the polity of their 
churches, like the doctrines of their several confessions, to rest on 
the single basis of the revealed word of God, could, in consistency 
with their own principles, come together into a church avowedly of 
human organization, constituted by compromises mutually exchanged, 
and resting on a new sort of electicism for its very foundation. It 



* It seems scarce consistent with candor in Wiseman, to slur over this significant 
fact, without further allusion to it than by saying that the Abbe Dubois " Md a par- 
ticular theory on this subject which he endeavored to maintain." Lect. on Doct. and Prac- 
tices of Catholic Religion. 

f Bishop Kenrick. 



IINTRODUCTION. 27 

would be the electicism of human wisdom, prescribing to the several 
sects the duty of quietly surrendering, or of holding in abeyance 
truths they profess conscientiously to derive from the divine records. 
If, for such union, I may surrender one truth, I may, for the purpose 
of extending the union yet more widely, sacrifice still additional 
doctrines, until, from a basis of divine origin in the Bible, I had 
shifted my faith and my hope to a basis merely and purely the device 
of men. Nor is a union merely nominal of any real value. The 
London Missionary Society is, we believe, composed of Congrega- 
tional churches, and Calvinistic in doctrine. The clergymen of the 
Establishment preach at its anniversaries, with others. But its mis- 
sionaries are Congregationalists ; Congregationalism it plants in 
heathen countries, and it never has hoped to unite abroad, as it 
never has united at home, the varying views of the Churchman and 
the Dissenter, the follower of Wesley and the disciple of Calvin ; the 
men who make infants church members and the men who sturdily 
deny their right to such membership. We cannot conceive any 
gain of effective union, any real diminution of controversy, by such 
flinging of the walls of a professed union around those who have not 
been brought into the unity of one creed, and cannot labor consis- 
tently and conscientiously within the enclosures of one church. He 
who knew the worth of union, as its most ardent advocates never 
have done, — he who implored it of the Father in a prayer yet to be 
answered, — he who will accomplish it in his own good hour, and 
in his own wiser methods, has taught us, in that petition itself, that 
for the union greater sanctification is needed, and that the process 
to sanctification is through obedience to the truth. Until a higher 
grade of holiness, not impeccable indeed, but far beyond our present 
attainments, pervades the church, her union would form her into a 
mass, unwieldy by its weight, and oppressive by its power. In 
effecting that sanctification, and in seeking that union, the churches 
would sacrifice the very means of God's own appointment, if they 
surrendered truth, as they conscientiously supposed it, for the sake 
of expediency ; and despairing of ultimate union on God's basis, the 
common reception of the truth, sought to effect it upon a basis of 
human invention. A base broader than the truth must rest for sup- 
port on the shifting sands of interest, opinion, and fashion ; and ulti- 
mately sink beneath the weight which it bears. Mutual sympathy 
and fraternal conference, as to the fields of labor, are all that seem 
needed. To secure these, some such plan as Carey wished might 
be adopted, — a conference of evangelical Christians, to be held every 
ten years. He would have it, for the sake of easier access to the 
Eastern missionaries, held at the Cape of Good Hope.* 

6. A question, suggested by our author, with regard to the duties 
which the missionary churches of the age owe to the Christians of 
Russia,f leads to the wider inquiry, in what manner should those now 
laboring for the heathen express their sympathy for those of the 



* Life of Carey, p. 323. f p age 332. 



28 INTRODUCTION. 

established churches of Europe or Asia, that, although nominally 
Christian, have lost the fervor of true piety ? To the ill-disguised 
Socinianism of the church of Geneva ; to the neology that but 
recently bore almost unquestioned sway in the pulpits and theologi- 
cal chairs of large portions of Germany ; to the formalism and super- 
stition of the Greek church, with a ritual in some respects even more 
cumbrous than that of Romanism ; to the imbecility of the Coptic 
church, and the paganized and spurious Christianity of Abyssinia ; 
to the Armenian, and the Chaldean Christians, and the other Chris- 
tians of the East, do we owe nothing, in seeking the evangelization 
of the world ? There are portions of the heathen world we cannot 
reach but with the consent of some of these enfeebled and corrupt 
churches. If we suppose them, as do some, entitled to the unques- 
tioning recognition of all their claims, would not the same principle 
have required the purest of apostolic churches to have fraternized 
with the guilty churches of Sardis and Laodicea ? And here is seen 
one aspect at least of the evils which a civil establishment inflicts on 
religion. Wherever any of these churches are the creatures of the 
state, representing the religion of the rulers of the lands they occupy, 
any interference, however innocent and scriptural, with their errors, 
is in danger of being regarded as an assault on the political institu- 
tions of the country. The apostate church has but to call for the aid 
of the kingdom to which she has bound herself, and dungeons open 
and chains are rattled before the adventurous evangelist, to deter his 
temerity. And if, strong in the simple faith of the gospel, he perse- 
veres and suffers, though with the heart of a martyr, it is with the 
infamy of a rebel. On the other hand, do the devoted ministers of a 
purer establishment, that of England, for instance, seek to commend 
the true gospel to those churches who have declined from its doc- 
trines and its holiness, their enterprise is regarded with malignity, 
and with the continual suspicion that it shrouds political designs in 
favor of the country from which they come, and that the garb of the 
herald of the cross covers the designs of the spy or the political 
emissary. All the crimes, too, and usurpations of the Christian 
country, — and from these what political power is free ? — will be 
charged, by the strangers whom the missionary visits, on his church, if 
endorsed and established by the nation. 

Yet, amid all these disadvantages, the British government has 
lately planted a missionary bishop beyond its own proper territories, 
having his seat at Jerusalem. By the mandate accompanying his 
appointment, it is understood that his jurisdiction is defined as em- 
bracing the countries of Syria, Chaldea, Egypt, and Assyria. As in 
these territories, great as may be the amount of her commerce and 
the number of her travellers, Britain yet owns not a foot of soil, and 
in all of these countries nominal Christian churches exist, the prece- 
dent seems one that should have its weight with some who are in- 
clined to condemn, as intrusive and unwarrantable, all interference 
by one Christian church with the territory of another community, 
claiming to believe the same gospel. To sanction as Christian all 



INTRODUCTION. 29 

that chooses to call itself by that honored name, is to canonize the 
bats that cluster around some time-honored cathedral, and claim it 
as their home. It is to relinquish one of the first principles of the 
Reformation, and condemn, as rash innovators and schismatics, men 
who have died the martyr's death, and have hitherto been remem- 
bered as wearing the martyr's crown. 

In our own favored land, with no establishment for any sect, and 
protection for all, no Christian church can hedge around any portion 
of our territory as her inheritance, and forbid all trespassing on the 
deserts she guards. Each with an equal right to proselyte, and each 
laboring side by side, Truth has all the advantages she asks, and 
Falsehood is stripped of that adventitious patronage from the state, 
which she has no right to ask. Upon the same principles, it would 
seem, all purer Christian churches — those established by the state, or 
those independent of it, whether endowed by government, or whether 
left portionless, except of the promises of Christ and the grace of the 
Holy Spirit — must claim to labor when they enter the territory cov- 
ered by a church whose Christianity is but nominal or declining. If 
rejecting the principle at home, where they are endowed by the 
state, they must adopt the principle when attempting labors in a 
foreign state. And thus do really evangelical churches, now en- 
dowed by the state, find themselves, in their missionary zeal, com- 
pelled to renounce one of the foundations of an establishment, the 
right of a government to provide the religion of the nation. The 
universal diffusion of a missionary spirit, in regard to churches hav- 
ing but a nominal Christianity, would ultimately undermine all es- 
tablished Christian churches; a result its earlier advocates never 
perhaps contemplated, — a result from which many of its friends 
would as yet shrink. 

That most were to be hoped from a movement towards reforma- 
tion, emanating from the bosom of such a declining church itself, is 
agreed by all. And for such men to rise out of the midst of the sur- 
rounding moral desolation, as Luther and Zuingle sprung up amid 
the darkness of Romanism, the Christians of our time should fer- 
vently pray. Yet when such a movement does not appear, and a 
fallen church gives no token of awaking, it is neither forbidden by 
Scripture nor by the rights of nations, that the citizens of a more 
favored country should use their personal influence to evangelize the 
inhabitants of another less enlightened land. No statutes can abro- 
gate the privileges of our common brotherhood, and when the rising 
faith of the church, sweeping over the metes and bounds of national 
division, shall pour its waters into lands now diked and guarded by 
an established church, the government, however mighty its resources, 
or eager in its vigilance, or cruel in its enactments, that should seek 
to bid back the swelling flood, will be as wisely employed as the 
king who eluded the rising billows for laving his royal feet ; and we 
may add, it will be employed as successfully. A mightier voice has 
issued its decree, that the uttermost parts of our world shall be the 
3* 



30 INTRODUCTION. 

possession of Christ ; and that the deluge of the knowledge of the 
glory of the Lord shall cover the face of the whole earth. 

7. The duties imposed upon the Protestant churches, by the reviv- 
ing zeal of Romanism, and its rival missions, planted, as many of 
those more recently established are, seemingly where they might best 
check the missions of Protestantism, furnish another subject of in- 
quiry. In the Sandwich Islands, as in Syria and in Persia, the in- 
fluence of the French government has been employed to foster 
Romish priests and colleges, one of whose chief designs seems to 
be to snatch from the hands of Protestant Christians a missionary 
work in which they have labored long, and in some of these fields 
with the richest blessing. The apostate church, that, in the days of 
Napoleon, seemed to many of the Protestants of Europe sold to a 
captivity from which there could be no return, and bowed down 
under a decrepitude never to be remedied by any skill, has displayed 
a vigor and enterprise alike astonishing to its friends and its foes. 
The church, of which LaMennais spoke not long since as having the 
dust of the sepulchre on its mute lips, is lifting up anew that voice, 
whose anathema once shook thrones, and its tones are not tremulous, 
though now it utters admonitions where once it pronounced its in- 
terdicts. The restoration of the Jesuit order, the most able and un- 
faltering champions the Romish see has ever had, seems now be- 
ginning to be felt, not only in the work of education, but in that of 
missions also. They are planting their colleges in our own western 
world, and in the mountains of Syria, in Protestant England as in 
Catholic Ireland. The last Provincial Council of the Romish church 
in the United States placed all the Indian missions in this country 
under the charge of that order, and fathers of the order of Loyola 
are now laboring beyond the Rocky Mountains. It has been said 
that all the Romish missions throughout the globe have recently 
been placed by the Roman pontiff in the hands of the same body. 
However this may be, certain it is that the great mission seminary 
at Rome, the Propaganda, has been committed to them as instruc- 
tors^ and thus they are intrusted with shaping the character and 
prescribing the doctrinal sentiments of the more able and influential 
among the rising missionaries. 

The rapid increase given, within the last few years, to the chief 
Romish body for the support of missions, the Society at Lyons, is 
certainly not among the least remarkable signs of the times. Wise- 
man, in 1836, spoke of the sum raised by this institution in 1834, as 
being then less than that received by " the poorest of the English 
missionary societies " of the Protestant chnrches,f while the annual 
income of the Propaganda, as he stated, did not reach £30,000, and 
out of that sum its one hundred students were to be educated. The 
receipts of the Lyons Society, for 1840, were $484,000, or nearly 



* Dublin Review, 1842. 

t He estimates it in that year at 404,727 francs Lecture on Doct. and Prac. of 

Cath. Ch. i. 176. 



INTRODUCTION. 31 

2,500,000 francs. This does not represent the whole amount of its 
expenditures, for having on hand, at the beginning of the year, 
802,941 francs, its whole funds for the year were 3,276,519 francs, or 
about $649,000, and the total of its expenditures was about $528,000. 
The society issues the " Annals of the Propagation of the Faith," of 
which journal it prints 120,000 copies, in seven languages. Well 
may it seem to a zealous Romanist, as it is styled by De Geramb, 
the abbot of La Trappe, " the most useful enterprise of which the 
church in these latter days can boast." It gathers its funds mostly in 
very small amounts, and from the poorer classes ; and to induce the 
more free contributions of the faithful, those giving regularly to it 
receive the merit of its good works.* 

To these renewed efforts in the field of foreign missions, the church 
of Rome has been stimulated in part, perhaps, by its endeavors to 
discredit Protestantism. The earlier assailants of the Reformed 
churches were accustomed to name among the evidences of the 
divine right of their own Romish church, its being the only mission- 
ary body. Now they must content themselves with laboring to 
prove that theirs are the more successful labors. Wiseman, accord- 
ingly, in a course of sermons preached in London, during Lent, in 
the year 1836, devoted two lectures to an examination of the relative 
resources and results of the Catholic and Protestant missions. He 
would fain show that as to the laborers, the wealth and numbers are 
with us ; as to converts, the success is almost exclusively with them. 
Any intelligent Protestant, who refers to his pages, will detect the 
grossly prejudiced and partial estimate which he has formed of some 
most successful endeavors of Protestant Christians for the heathen, 
and discrepancies between his diminished amount of Romish labor 
and expenditure, and the accounts elsewhere given by Roman Cath- 
olic authorities. 

That the number of nominal adherents won by their earlier or more 
recent labors to the religion of Christ is great, may be readily allowed. 
That there have been among the missionaries of this corrupt church 
men of singular disinterestedness, ability, and devotedness, it were 
equally ungenerous and unjust to dispute. But the modes to which 
they have resorted for the purpose of obtaining proselytes,f and the 



* " A small alms and a short prayer are alone required to entitle its members to 
have a share in the merits of those missionaries who expose themselves to so many 
dangers and suffer so many privations." — Geramb's Visit to Rome, p. 54. — Am. Ed. 

f Massie, a Protestant missionary, in his recent work, entitled " Continental In- 
dia," gives the following account of the modes of presenting the gospel adopted by a 
contemporary Romish missionary : — 

" I have consulted a Jesuit priest, who has spent thirty years in India : he was 
clothed in the native costume — his head covered by a large shawl as his turban — 
his legs bare, and his feet shod with sandals — his body-clothes of the Indian pun- 
jam ; his gray beard finely flowing over his breast, his manners corresponding with 
the native habit, his food the diet of the Brahmins, and in his public instructions avoid- 
ing every topic that would offend the prejudices of caste ; becoming all things to all 
men to such a degree, that he would not permit the sensitive Hindoos to know that tfie 
prodigal* s father had killed the fatted calf, or that the Mosaic law prescribed the sacrifice of 
bulls and goats, and would not inform them that Jcsu3 was a carpenter's son, and his disci- 
ples fishermen of Galilee." (Massie, vol. U. page 87, London, 1840.) It is a curious 



32 INTRODUCTION. 

principles and practices in which multitudes of those proselytes have 
been trained, show sufficiently that, in some countries at least, the 
world is not greatly the debtor of such evangelists, and leave reason 
to fear that among vast multitudes, so gathered into the number of 
Christ's professed disciples, there would be few whom he would rec- 
ognize as such were he to return to our world, few whom he will 
acknowledge in the day of judgment. When, as on the Orinooko, 
and also in California, they encouraged or connived at forays made 
by their Indian converts into the heathen tribes for the purpose of 
bringing in as captives women and children to be made Christians, 
we cannot think very favorably either of the teacher or the proselyte. 
As to their converts in India, setting aside the testimony of Dubois, 
to which reference has already been made, one of their missionary 
prelates in that country has in our own times used strong language, 
when declaring that their " proselytes have rather become so by cas- 
ualty than through preaching. In ordinary cases, the hope of bettering 
their condition induces them to become converts to Christianity " * We 
cannot form a much more favorable opinion of the spirituality of the 
religion they planted in the far-famed missions of Paraguay, when 
we hear one of the missionaries, who had long labored there, and left 
it only on the suppression and exile of his order, Dobrizhoffer, declar- 
ing, with a simplicity and candor that, however characteristic of the 
man, were scarce to have been expected in a Jesuit father, " If, ac- 
cording to St. Paul, amongst other nations faith enters by the ear, 
with the savages of Paraguay it can only be thrust in by the mouth 
Hence our anxiety lest cattle should fail us." f And elsewhere he 
says, " The most eloquent teacher of God's word will do but little 
good in Paraguay, unless he be liberal in clothing and feeding his 
disciples." J Our Lord rejected the disciples of the loaves, because 

instance of the meeting of extremes, that rationalism and Romanism agree in the 
importance they attach to the principle of accommodation in the interpretation and 
dissemination of the gospel. German neology uses it to take out of the teaching of 
Christ and his apostles every unpalatable doctrine, supposing that in seeming to 
assent to such doctrine, the Savior only accommodated himself to the prejudices of 
his hearers. The Romish system, on the other hand, uses the same principle as an 
excuse for bringing into the religion of Christ every indigenous superstition it may 
find in the -country where it labors. A principle that can thus, on one side, empty 
the Scriptures of all the truths peculiar to them, and, on the other, pour into those 
Scriptures every invention and tradition of paganism, is too pliable to be a rule of 
interpretation. It gives every reader of the New Testament the right of making his 
own gospel, to his own liking. Coleridge speaks of the scholar who lettered a vol- 
ume of Socinian tracts with the title " Every man his own Savior." This rule, as to 
understanding and imparting the gospel, would be, virtually, " Every manautJior of his 
own Revelation." 

* Letter of F. A. Pezzoni, bishop of Esbonen, dated Agra, 20 Aug., 1832. Wolff's 
Researches and Missionary Labors, from 1831 to 1834. Philadelphia, 1837, p. 213. 
Wolff" gives the original Italian at page 206. In Read's Memoirs of Babajee, we need 
not therefore wonder to find it said, though here it is Protestant authority, " The 
vast numbers of Hindoos and Mussulmans converted by the Romanists differ but 
little from their heathen neighbors, except that, having thrown off the few restraints 
which caste and superstition imposed, they enjoy greater license to indulge in all 
kinds of vice." — Christian Brahmin, i. 27. 

f Dobrizhoffer, Account of the Abipones, iii. 391. 

% Ibid. ii. 134. The work of Dobrizhoffer was published in Latin by the author. 
An English translation appeared at London, made by a daughter of Coleridge, the 
poet, who, in some of his works, speaks with paternal pride of the merits of style in 



INTRODUCTION. 33 

they followed him merely to be fed. This church would seem to 
hail them as converts, whatever be their motives. A recent trav 
eller, Forbes, in his account of the missions of California, while aim- 
ing to exalt them at the expense of what he terms " the Methodist 
and Calvinist missions," yet describes the Indians as degraded, 
wretched, and servile. Even the language of Southey, when paint- 
ing the missions of Paraguay in glowing hues, contains admissions 
which show sufficiently that the type of character produced was not 
that favorable to the best interests of the race.* 

As to the character of the laborers themselves, upon whom Roman- 
ism has leaned in the work of proselytism, it would be unjust to for- 
get the many who have encountered fearful peril, privation, and 
death in its most terrific forms with a constancy and meek courage 
that the men of a purer faith might well envy. Of their earlier 
laborers in China, Milne has said, " The learning, personal virtues, 
and ardent zeal of some of them deserve to be imitated by all future 
missionaries ; will be equalled by few, and perhaps rarely exceeded 
by any."f 

In our days, their missionaries and converts in Cochin-China have 
been called to endure trials issuing, in some cases, in fearful martyr- 
dom, and their faith has not faltered.]: Yet, as early as the middle 
of the seventeenth century, when the missions of Rome were in their 
glory and strength, the Jesuit Acosta holds language with regard to 
the missionaries, that has been quoted by Baxter,§ and which suffi- 
ciently shows the want of spirituality in many of these evangelists 
of the heathen. In the latter portion of the next century, were found, 
among the emissaries of the church to India, such men as the mis- 
sionary bishop of Halicarnassus, who headed a troop of two thousand 
Mahrattas, plundered villages, and shared the booty with his soldiers, 
i It was this edifying personage to whom, as Voltaire tells us, Lalli, 
the French general, was accustomed to say, " My good bishop, how 
have you contrived to escape hanging ? " || Of the arts they have 
used, the world has already heard too much, in their eastern and their 



the version. It was reviewed in the London Quarterly, apparently by Southey, at 
much length, and furnished him also with the incidents of his " Tale of Paraguay," 
in which he speaks warmly of the interest of the work, and the character of the 
writer. 

* " They on the Jesuit, who was nothing loath, 
Reposed alike their conscience and their cares ; 
And he, with equal faith, the trust of both 
Accepted and discharged. The bliss is theirs 
Of that entire dependence, that prepares 
Entire submission, let what may befall : 
And his whole careful course of life declares 
That for their good he holds them thus in thrall, 
Their father and their friend, priest, ruler, all in all." 

Tale of Paraguay, Canto IV. 
T Medhurst's China, p. 203. 

% This persecution commenced in 1833. Already 400 churches have been destroyed 
by it. — Wiseman. 
* Works, Orme's Ed., vol. ii. 23. 
Voltaire, Fragm. Historiq. sur l'Inde, xiii. xv 



34 INTRODUCTION. 

western fields of labor. The amount of wrong thus done to the 
cause of Christ and the souls of men is incalculable. The world has 
been flattered and humored into a religion that left its worst super- 
stitions often entirely untouched, and but threw the crucifix and the 
scapular over the neck, while the heart surrendered none of its old 
idols, and knew nothing of the renewing grace of God. And even 
in the best of both teachers and proselytes, there was a reliance on 
human merit, and an appeal to self-righteousness, that made priva- 
tion, torture, and even death, welcome, because it was supposed that 
they gave claims on heaven. 

It is a gratifying circumstance, that, amid its increased zeal for 
foreign missions, the hold of the Romish see on some of its home pos- 
sessions seems evidently loosened. Spain herself, and the countries 
speaking the Spanish language, are no longer governed by the Pon- 
tiff with that stern and unquestioned sway which he once exercised. 
It may yet be the policy of Protestantism to carry " the war into 
Africa," by missionary efforts, for the benefit of southern Europe and 
South America, thus retaliating, in her own ancient dominions, the 
attempted inroads of the Romish see on the fields of Protestant mis- 
sions. That the Reformation should have been checked and crushed 
as it was in Spain and Italy, was among the mysterious dispensa- 
tions of Providence. Hindrances then existing are lessened, if not 
entirely removed, in our day. 

Meanwhile, the evident duty of Protestant Christians is to emulate 
all of zeal, and energy, and enterprise, and self-denial, that may be 
exhibited in the past or present movements of the Romish missions. 
The issue of the conflict cannot be doubtful, for prophecy has sealed 
the fate of that antichristian church. She has herself pronounced 
her own doom, by setting herself so madly against the word of God. 
It is to the undue veneration for this, and the unwise employment of it, 
that Wiseman, in his laborious comparison of the missions of the rival 
communions, ascribes the failure he imagines himself to have discov 
ered in the missionary efforts of the Reformed churches. " The 

BLESSING OF HEAVEN IS NOT UPON THE WORK, NOR HIS APPROBA- 
TION UPON THE PRINCIPLE, THE ALL-SUFFICTENCY OF THE WRIT- 
TEN word."* The strong language in which the bulls of the Vati- 
can have, in recent years, condemned the movements of the Bible 
Society, the mingling of inveterate dislike and ill-disguised alarm 
that breathe through these documents, whenever they touch upon 
the free dissemination of the Scriptures, and the share which their 
love and reverence for the Scriptures, and their desire for its study 
by each private Christian, had in bringing down upon the Jansenista 



* Wiseman. Lect. on Boct. and Prac. i. 169. In the same spirit, Judson and his 
heroic wife, whose name is an honor to her country and sex, are spoken of as " ihcst, 
simple persons," for laboring to translate the whole Bible into Burman ; and their 
mission is pronounced "a complete failure." We question whether the Catholic 
missionaries, who, according to his own showing, commenced their labors in Bur- 
mah in 1719, more than a century since, can show any results to be compared with 
those of the labors of the Judsons. 



INTRODUCTION. 35 

the overwhelming condemnation pronounced upon them by the 
famed bull Unigenitus, suggests some significant lessons. They 
prove very conclusively that Rome knows, as one of her most vul- 
nerable points, her denial of the Scriptures to the laity, and dreads, 
as the most dangerous of her assailants, those who translate and dis- 
tribute, and by their unwearied preaching commend, the written word 
of God to the nations. In one of those apocryphal tales which this 
church has introduced into the canon of Revelation, the prophet 
Daniel is described as poisoning the idol god of Babylon with some 
strange compound. The fable seems one in which Rome has fore- 
shadowed her own fate. Not by the force of persecution, — not by 
the aid of laws, and battles, and treaties, — not by the rise of some new 
Cromwell, the cannon of whose navies shall shake the Vatican as 
once did those of his Admiral Blake, — not by the appearance of 
some new Gustavus, asserting the liberties of the Protestant North at 
the head of his martial squadrons on the fields of some new Lutzen, 
— not by the reappearance of Bourbon, conducting again his Ger- 
man troops to the sack of the sacred city, or of Bonaparte, sending 
his infidel Frenchmen to lead the successor of Peter in captivity, — 
but by the simple Scriptures, the idol of the prophetical Babylon is 
yet to fall. Truth shall poison the dragon. The Lord, " by the 
breath of his mouth ," shall consume Antichrist By setting herself 
in this determined hostility against the use of the Scriptures of God, 
the Romish church has inserted her name in the same list with those 
of Antiochus under the old, and Dioclesian under the new dispensa- 
tion, who in like manner sought to extirpate the book of God. She 
has ascertained her character, she has decided her fate. 

Imbedded as that book has become in the literature of the world, — 
translated, as even in our own times it has been, into all the chief 
dialects of the globe, — it is beyond the reach of her endeavors. Its 
past victories are, to the most careless observer, the pledge of its 
future conquests. It smote Jove on the summit of his shadowy 
Olympus ; and the gods of classic mythology, the rabble of their Pan- 
theon, vanished before its sacred might. It smote the Odin and the 
Thor of our forefathers in northern Europe, and routed the phantoms 
of the Valhalla. Even thus shall it smite, in its irresistible energy, 
the gods of all nations ; and be seen, at last, the literature of all lands 
doing it homage, exalted above all other volumes, traditions, and laws, 
as the history of the world's one Redeemer, the law that giveth life, 
the book of God. 

In the remarks which have been made, it will be observed, that we 
have not generally taken up the topics suggested by our author. The 
amount of effort due to the Jews is, for instance, an inquiry proposed 
by him, to which we have not referred. The questions thus to be 
settled are many and grave. We have but cursorily noticed a few 
that, from various causes, have interested us. It has not been with 
the hope of throwing much light upon them. But, as in the mission- 
ary enterprise, the contributions of the Sabbath-school child and the 
humble offering of the widow are cast together into the treasury, so 



36 INTRODUCTION. 

must it be in settling the policy of that enterprise. The missionary 
work is eminently, in all its departments, a collective and a cumula- 
tive one. These reflections, thrown out amid the pressure of other 
engagements, are cast, as of old the soldiers cast each man his stone 
on the grave of some fallen chieftain. Gradually the heap became a 
monument, not only towering over the plain around, but a sea-mark 
eyed by the voyager on the distant waters. Every mite given, every 
inquiry made as to our own means of aiding the enterprise, every 
prayer breathed for its success, goes to swell the amount of interest 
felt in that cause of missions which must be dear to the philanthro- 
pist, the patriot, and the Christian, — goes towards the accomplish- 
ment of the promises which assure us of its final triumph, in bringing 
the world again into obedience to its Maker and God. 

W. R. W. 



THE GEEAT COMMISSION 



PART I. 



THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE VIEWED IN ITS RELA 
TION TO THE WORD OF GOD. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE SCRIPTURE THEORY OF CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTAL- 
ITY FOR THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD 
STATED AND EXPLAINED. 

I. Mutual dependence and influence is the law of the 
J universe. Look in whatever direction and examine what- 
ever object we may, we find nothing insulated and alone. 
• From the globe we inhabit, and which is one of a visible 
community of worlds, up to the great sidereal system, the 
whole of which is apparently moving together through space, 
and down to the minutest atom that floats in the air, all are 
bound together, and constantly acting on each other, by defi- 
aite and universal laws. The body of the reader and the 
book which he is reading are held, by gravitation, in union 
with the remotest parts of the created system ; while the 
■naterial influences constantly transmitted from the most 
distant regions of space place them in physical contact with 
he universe. 

In this literal dependence of every part of the material 
3Conomy on every other part, we behold an image of the 
4 



38 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

reciprocal action and mutual relation of all animated being. 
Here, each is connected with all — and the whole to God. 
Here, in the absence of sin, we behold the sublime spectacle 
of the infinitely blessed God surrounded by distinct orders of 
sentient, happy beings ; so various as to reach from the arch- 
angel down to the insect, yet so closely related, as parts of a 
mighty whole, that no single member can be detached and 
made independent of the rest ; while the well-being of each 
is an ingredient in the happiness of the whole ; and all, ac- 
cording to their respective natures, ascribe glory to Him, 
their centre and their source, by whom they are alike per- 
vaded, and in whom they are all one. 

That this interdependence, as far as it relates to the hu- 
man family, is part of an original plan, is obvious. By cre- 
ating, at first, one common father of the species, the Almighty 
designed that each individual should stand related to all the 
rest, and feel himself pledged to promote their happiness. 
By rendering us necessary to each other's welfare, he sought 
to train us up to an humble imitation of his own goodness, to 
make every hand and heart a consecrated channel for his 
love to flow in, and thus to find our own happiness in the 
happiness of others. In such a state, he who approached 
nearest to the pattern of the Divine Benevolence would ne- 
cessarily have been the object of the greatest admiration ; 
and as admiration leads, by a law of our nature, to imitation, 
men would have been always advancing towards higher and 
higher degrees of perfection. Inferior excellence being con- 
stantly drawn upwards by 4he strong moral attraction of that 
which was above it, a process of assimilation to the blessed 
God would have been perpetually going on, which would 
have rendered earth a copy of heaven. 

The connection, then, subsisting between them, would have 
been one, not merely of mutual dependence, but of recipro- 
cal influence. And this moral influence it is which would 
have invested their mutual relation with so much impor- 
tance. Could we have looked down upon them, we should 
have seen that every word uttered projected an influence ; 
that every action performed drew after it a train of influ- 
ence ; that every relation sustained was a line along which 
was constantly transmitted a vital influence ; that every indi- 
vidual was a centre ever radiating streams of living moral 
influence. 

Could we have selected one such individual, and have in- 



STATED AND EXPLAINED. 39 

vestigated his moral history, we should have found that, from 
the first moment of his existence, his character went on daily 
and hourly streaming with more than electric fluid — with a 
subtle, penetrating element of moral influence ; that, in what- 
ever society he mingled, he left on their character, secret, 
perhaps, but not imperceptible traces that he had been 
among them ; that his influence operated involuntarily ; for 
though he might choose, in any given instance, what he 
would do, yet, having done it, he could not choose what in- 
fluence it should have ; that it operated universally ; never 
terminating on himself, but extending to all within his circle, 
emanating from each of these again as from a fresh centre, 
and thus transmitted on, in silent but certain effect, to the 
outermost circle of social existence ; that it was indestructi- 
ble, not a particle ever being lost, but the whole of it taken 
up into the general system of cause and effect, and always in 
operation somewhere. And thus we should have seen that, 
though he was apparently as isolated as a ship in the midst 
of the Atlantic, the waves which the motion of that ship gen- 
erates from shore to shore were only an image of his ever- 
circling, widening, shoreless influence ; and that the influ- 
ence which thus blended and bound him up with the whole 
race, invisible and impalpable as it is, is yet the mightiest 
element of society, the element wielded by God himself. 

But then, if such the relation and such the distinct influ- 
ence of these holy, happy beings, their responsibility for the 
use of that influence would have been proportionate. The 
very fact that God had invested them with such influence 
would, without any verbal command, have been regarded by 
them as a sufficient expression of his will that they must use 
it to the utmost, and for his glory. They could not have 
lived to themselves if they would ; for, from the moment they 
began to live, their influence necessarily linked them to the 
universe. And they would not if they could, for they would 
have found that living to God was usefulness, excellence, and 
happiness, all in one. They would have found that not 
more certainly is the order of the material world maintained 
by the action of matter upon matter, than the order of the 
moral world is by the action of mind upon mind. And un- 
der the hallowed influence of that reciprocal action, they 
would have been perpetually brightening and rising into the 
image of God. 

How far the inhabitants of the celestial world would — on 



40 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

the hypothesis of man having retained his primal innocence 
— have influenced, by intercourse, the human character, ad- 
mits of little more than conjecture. That He who has united 
distinct material worlds by indissoluble bonds, should leave 
two orders of holy intelligences, both of which had not only 
sprung from the same Fount of being, but acknowledged the 
same laws, and exhibited the same paternal image, to pursue 
their respective courses in perfect and unpassable separation 
from each other, is, to say the least, highly improbable. That 
the angelic " sons of God" took a deep and rejoicing interest 
in the creation of our world, is fact of divine revelation. 
And the scriptural history of the fall of man leaves us to 
infer that, if such of the angelic order as " kept not their 
first estate " had access to the human mind for purposes of 
evil, those of them who retained their original purity would 
not have been denied access of a similar kind for purposes 
of good. And thus the intelligent universe would have ex- 
hibited the sublime spectacle of distinct orders of holy beings, 
each composed of innumerable members, producing and re- 
ceiving continual modifications of character by the mutual 
action of all its parts ; and that modification assimilating them 
to the central and solar glory, on whom they were all alike 
dependent, and in whom they were all one. 

II. But suppose, it might have been said — suppose that, 
by some dreadful possibility, a principle of evil should obtain 
entrance into this all-related system. If that entrance should 
be obtained, first, indeed, among the members of the human 
order, it is possible that the members of the angelic order, 
being less accessible to us than we are to them, might escape 
the contagion. But if it should obtain, first, in the higher 
order, how likely is it that it will descend and be communi- 
cated, by intercourse, to the family of man ! In that event, — 
the very prospect and possibility of which appals, — the recip- 
rocal influence of mind on mind, mightily efficacious as it is 
for good, may become equally efficacious for evil. One be- 
ing may become the tempter of another. By the union of 
each with all, the moral poison may be taken up and circu- 
lated through the whole social system. The very first sin 
would be felt by all the race, and to the last moment of time. 
If any thing were then wanting to hasten and seal the self- 
destruction of the guilty community, it would be only the 
presence of some leading spirit who should be competent to 



STATED AND EXPLAINED. 41 

organize and work its complicated agencies on a comprehen- 
sive plan. Should such a consummation arrive, how direful 
the results to those immediately involved, and how incalcula- 
ble the effects on the universe at large ! 

Now, this hypothetical case is only a literal description of 
the history and actual condition of the world. At the time 
of the creation a principle of evil was at large in the universe. 
Satan, together with an unknown multitude cf associate reb- 
els, having swerved from his allegiance to " the blessed and 
only Potentate," had been driven from the immediate pres- 
ence of God, cut oif from the loyal part of the creation, and 
doomed to be the prey of his own mighty depravity. Ac- 
tuated by that universal law by which each being and prin- 
ciple seeks to conform all things to its own nature, and stim- 
ulated by implacable hatred against God, he came to efface 
from our world the divine image, and to stamp his own on 
its breast instead. In the execution of this dreadful project 
he succeeded. By no employment of force, but by the simple 
action of mind on mind through the medium of the senses, 
Satan prevailed on man to sin. As the first sinner was the 
first man, human nature was poisoned in its fountain. The 
first man is sinning still, in effect, in each of ail his posterity. 
The first sin is thrilling still, and will vibrate on through the 
whole line of being, till it reaches the last of human kind. 
How closely compacted, how vitally interwoven, must be the 
system of our mutual dependence, and how mysteriously 
penetrating and pervading the principle of our reciprocal 
influence, when a single sin can thus distract and derange 
the whole ! 

Yet now it was that man first made the monstrous essay of 
living to himself. As if he had only to withdraw his allegi- 
ance from God in order to dissolve relations with the uni- 
verse, selfishness now became the law of his sinful being. 
But such separation was impossible. Live to himself, in the 
sense of selfish appropriation, he might ; but detach himself 
from the relations of dependence and influence he could not. 
Cease to be the centre of a hallowed influence he might, but 
cease to be the centre of ail influence he could not. From 
the moment he ceased to be a universal good, he became a 
universal evil. Each act of selfishness is the infliction of a 
universal injury. And every successive sin awakens afresh 
the echoes of the original curse. Not only did our primary 
4* 



42 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

relations of mutual influence remain, — the introduction of sin 
appears to have stimulated them into preternatural activity 
and power. Every man in effect became a Jeroboam — his 
life laid a train of evil for multitudes, and for ages to come. 
His infantine hand could open a floodgate of evil which the 
arm of Omnipotence alone could shut. His careless laugh 
could do more to counteract a moral principle than the proc- 
lamation of a law could do to enforce it. Though touching 
only one point in society, he could send an impulse of evil 
through the whole. While the thunders of Sinai soon died 
away to a whisper on the ear of the world, many a whisper 
of evil, as it passed from lip to lip, waxed louder and louder, 
till nations echoed with the sound, and distant ages received 
its reverberations as possessing all the authority of law. 

Parental influences, blending with the first rudiments of 
infant being, tainted character in its very source. Familiar 
intercourse became one of the grand ordinances of mutual 
temptation and ruin. Relationships, calculated to circulate 
happiness through all the veins of the social system, were per- 
verted by sin into so many channels of destruction. Tend- 
encies and influences of evil, which had long been gathering, 
gradually assumed the definite and enduring form of civil 
government, and gave a character to nations ; from which, 
again, as from so many centres, they propagated their effects 
through all the globe and for all time. Evil example, acquir- 
ing the despotic power of precedent and custom, showed 
itself stronger than any thing human which could be brought 
to counteract it ; tended to displace every other power, and 
claimed to reign alone. In a word, the social principle, in 
all its forms, entered into the service of sin, and showed itself 
mightier for evil than for good. Thrones and temples, col- 
lecting the scattered elements of evil, concentrated, strength- 
ened, and gave them back again to the world under the sol- 
emn names of law and religion. Yes, religion itself, or that 
at least which bore the name, lived only to aggravate the evil, 
and to keep it in constant and destructive circulation. Satan 
became " the god of this world." Wherever he looked, the 
expanse was his own. Temptation in his hands had become 
a science, and sin was taught by rule. The world was for 
him one storehouse of evil — an armory, in which every ob- 
ject and event ranked as a weapon, and all were classed and 
kept ready for service. He beheld the complicated ma- 



STATED AND EXPLAINED. 43 

chinery of evil, which his mighty malignity had constructed; 
in full and efficient operation, and the whole resulting in a 
vast, organized, and consolidated empire. 

But more ; not only did the laws of our mutual influence 
remain, — not only did sin stimulate them into fearful ac- 
tivity, — they increased in power with each successive age. 
The mechanical philosophy informs us that, on the principle 
of the equality of action and reaction, no motion impressed 
by natural causes, or by human agency, is ever obliterated. 
No sound or sentiment, therefore, which has ever been uttered, 
is or can be lost. The pulsations of the air, which the utter- 
ance set in motion, continue in their effect to operate still ; so 
that every sound or sentiment will be recoverable in the most 
distant ages. No deed has ever been performed without leav- 
ing behind it, on some part of the material universe, an inde- 
structible witness to its existence. Had any one of all these 
sentiments and deeds never been uttered or performed, cer- 
tain impressions would have been wanting from the material 
elements which they now contain ; so that they form at this 
moment a minute and faithful record, to an eye capable of 
reading it, of all the eventful past. Their existing state is 
the complicated result of all the impressions produced on 
them from the commencement of time, and presents to the 
eye of Omniscience a vast book of remembrance, from whose 
unerring pages he could read forth at large the history of the 
world. 

Just so, when the world had existed four thousand years, 
its moral condition was the exact result of the moral influ- 
ences of all the past ; for it had received the collected effect 
of the whole. Not only are all contemporaneous things mutu- 
ally influenced and connected, but there is also a constant 
increase in the onward course and widening stream of influence 
from age to age. As every generation owes some part of its 
character to that which preceded it, so it imparts some por- 
tion of its own to that which follows it, and thus propagates 
the blended and augmented influences of itself and all its 
predecessors. And this shows the utter impossibility there 
was that man himself should ever remedy his depraved condi- 
tion. By necessity of nature, it became worse and worse. 
Each age, in succession, inheriting the accumulated evils 
of the past, and adding to them something of its own, 
transmitted the whole to that which followed, and thus pro- 
pelled the world in its downward course with an ever-aug- 



44 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

meriting force. While the air he breathed was only the 
record of the past, the moral atmosphere in which he moved, 
from the first moment of his existence to the last, was not 
merely the record, but the substance, of the past ; and, as such, 
it was one of the elements, a part of the material, out of 
which his character was necessarily formed. It was the 
atmosphere of a pest-house, and he entered it not merely to 
breathe the deadly infection of all who had preceded him 
there, but to add to it the infection of his own disease for all 
who came after him. So that, even then, when, compared 
with the unity and amity of heaven, mankind presented the 
aspect of mutual hostility and universal disorganization, it 
might most truly have been said, in the sense of relative in- 
fluence, " No man liveth to himself; " every act of selfishness 
and sin is the infraction of a universal law, and as such the 
infliction of a universal evil. 

III. What, then, is all lost ? Is the benevolent design of 
God, in appointing the laws of our reciprocal dependence and 
influence, irretrievably defeated ? Was the dreadful event of 
its perversion unforeseen and unprovided for 1 Has the chain 
of dependence, which unites us together, passed entirely into 
the hands of the destroyer, and is it henceforth to be used 
only for dragging mankind together to perdition ? If not, 
where is the remedy ? What can be the nature of that plan 
which, when all the influences of earth have been perverted 
to evil, can, without doing violence to any original principle, 
convert the whole into good ? What can be the nature of 
that Being who, coming into the midst of a world where all 
men are laboring to live to themselves, can say, with a power 
which fulfils its own word, " No man liveth to himself" ? 
Who can arrest a world that has broken away from its proper 
centre, and can return it to its appointed orbit 1 — who can 
stand in the midst of the great vortex of selfishness, and say 
to the mighty maelstroom, in the height and fury of its all- 
absorbing whirl, " Flow to the circumference," and say it with 
an effect which can make it refund and float its choicest treas- 
ures to the ends of the earth ; in a word, which can make 
men, who were their own centre and circumference, take Him 
for their centre, and for their circumference the universe? 
What can be the nature of such a Being, and where is he to 
be found ? 

" O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the 



STATED AND EXPLAINED. 45 

knowledge of God ! " Not only was the fearful catastrophe 
not unforeseen, the event demonstrated that mercy had only 
been waiting the moment of its occurrence, in order to un- 
fold a plan which was evidently calculated on the certainty 
of that moment arriving, — which took advantage of all its 
dreadful peculiarities, — and of which every subsequent event 
in the divine economy has been only a constituent part, and 
every age witnessed the progressive fulfilment. And still 
more; not only does the economy of our redemption propose 
to mitigate the destructive tendency of our influence on each 
other, it actually presses that influence into its own service, 
and proposes, by the agency of the Holy Spirit, to sanctify 
and employ it as the chosen instrumentality by which to ex- 
pel from the earth the evils produced by its perversion ; till 
every man shall have once more become what he was prima- 
rily formed to be — an agent of unmingled good to every other 
man, and the world be restored to God. Without repealing 
or deranging any of the original relations or existing arrange- 
ments of nature, though they had all been perverted into 
means of destruction, a plan is superinduced which proposes 
to turn all those relations and arrangements to the highest 
account, as the means of his recovery ; to make the chain of 
our mutual dependence once more fast to the throne of God. 
The seat of that plan was the bosom of God : the essence 
of that plan was, that the highest influence in the universe 
should be imbodied and brought to bear on us ; an influence 
emanating from Him who concentrates all the energies of 
the universe in himself, an influence streaming from the 
open heart of infinite love, should discharge its power on the 
heart of the world. The obstacle to that plan lay in the ap- 
parent impossibility of reconciling such benevolence with the 
known and necessary hostility of God against sin ; of exer- 
cising such restorative influence on man, without relaxing 
general obligation, and thus diffusing a disorganizing influ- 
ence through the universe at large. But the organ and 
agent of that plan came forth from his bosom, equal to all 
its conditions, and bent on its fulfilment. And the glory of- 
that plan consists in this, that the greatest apparent obstacle 
was made the occasion of its greatest triumph; that the same 
act which made it consistent for God to be gracious to man, 
made it impossible for man, when duly acquainted and di- 
vinely impressed with it, to resist its attractive and subduing 
power. Around that plan the purposes of mercy had from 



46 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

eternity revolved. Its earliest announcement in Eden, though 
only conveyed as an obscure intimation, touched every spring 
of hope in human nature, and left an ineffaceable moral im- 
pression on the mind of the world. The mere anticipation 
of that coming fact had the effect, for ages, wherever it was 
duly cherished, of transforming human hearts, and of bear- 
ing them on into the presence of God. And when at length 
the time for its fulfilment came, with the prospect of its 
grand results swelling and bursting his heart of love it was, 
that the Savior uttered the sublime prediction, " Now shall 
the prince of this world be cast out ; and I, if I be lifted up 
from the earth, will draw all men unto me." As if he had 
said, " The central power of the earth is a demon. I look 
for his throne, and find it in the midst of the world. There, 
where should have stood the throne of God, stands ' Satan's 
seat ; ' while in his hand are all the influences of earth, and 
at his feet all its prostrate homage. But there shall stand my 
cross. Casting him out, I will become the centre of the re- 
covered world. Those human passions shall burn for me. 
Those countless idolaters shall bow to me. And all this will 
I do, not by force, but by influence alone. No single princi- 
ple of human nature will I violate. Placing myself in har- 
mony with them all, I will imbody every element of influence, 
and engage every holy agency, in the universe. All evil influ- 
ences have conspired; all good shall combine to oppose them. 
My benevolence can find employment for all. Man's deprav- 
ity and danger require them all. None shall be absent. 
But, chiefly, thou, Eternal Spirit, my object requires that 
thou shouldst come to conduct and to give efficiency to the 
whole." 

Thus the Savior proposed to recover that principle of mu- 
tual dependence and influence by which sin was dragging the 
world to perdition, and to employ it as a golden chain for 
drawing all men to himself. 

Now, could we stay to analyze the elements of the char- 
acter and work of Christ, as they relate to man, we should 
find that each of them was studiously adapted to act on the 
human mind as an element of influence; and the more minute- 
ly we could examine them, the more should we see to admire 
in their exquisite adaptation and attractive power. Dignity 
is influence ; and he demonstrated to our conviction that he 
was the Son of God. Identity of nature is influence ; and 
he became " bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh." Con- 



STATED AND EXPLAINED. 47 

tiguity is influence; and he came and dwelt amongst us. 
Relationship is influence ; and, so far from disolving existing 
relationships, he actually instituted a new one ; he became 
a man ! Instead of moving away farther from us, as our 
guilt deserved, he came nearer, came with all the fulness 
of the Godhead to be one of ourselves ; came to demon- 
strate before our eyes how much a God can love, a Savior 
suffer, a Spirit effect, in order to our salvation. Character 
is influence ; he saw that, as mind rules matter, charac- 
ter rules mind itself, draws other minds into sympathy with 
it, imparts new impulses to society, speaks with a voice heard 
by distant nations, and which goes down to future ages. He 
saw, therefore, that when his character should come to be 
truly known, — known for his unconquerable devotedness to 
the cause of God and man, in having borne down, by a course 
of unexampled self-denial, the greatest obstacles in the uni- 
verse, made his way from heaven, through the ranks of hell, 
into the midst of the world, and direct to a cross ; known for 
his self-sacrificing benevolence, in having effected an un- 
broken descent, from heights of glory no wing can scale, to 
depths of humiliation no line can fathom ; known for having 
presented to a world, which refused to live unto God, the 
amazing spectacle of a God living to it, turning his whole 
self into a sacrifice, compared with which nothing else would 
ever deserve the name ; known for the richness of his gifts, 
and the vastness of his design, as including the happiness 
without measure of numbers without calculation, and for 
ages without end, — all who should experimentally "know 
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ " would be penetrated 
and possessed with the effect, and would compass sea and 
land to propagate the report. 

He knew also that a divine influence — the influence of 
the Spirit himself — would accompany and give it effect. 
He could foresee, indeed, that the recipients of his grace, 
moved by the Spirit of truth, would throw all their sancti- 
fied human influences into the work of preaching it. But 
even they who would glory in it the loudest, and labor for it 
the most, would know but comparatively little of its excel- 
lence. Whereas the Infinite Spirit knows it perfectly ; knows 
it as the basis of his own agency ; knows the central place 
which the cross occupies, as the means of atonement, in the 
councils of God, the influence which it exerts on every part 
of the divine government, and the glory which it is destined 



48 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

to shed over the universe ; and the Savior saw, therefore, 
that the Spirit would invest it with a power over the human 
mind corresponding with its value and supreme importance ; 
and that so entirely would the whole economy be conducted, 
from first to last, by his agency, that it would be distinctly 
known as the dispensation of the Spirit. 

True, indeed, what would influence the human mind was 
not the only thing, was not the first thing, which the Author 
of salvation had to provide. There was another mind to be 
consulted. There was the First, the Eternal Mind to be 
more than consulted, to be propitiated; for man had dared 
his judicial displeasure. Whatever adaptation, therefore, the 
gospel might seem to possess, it can contain no effectual rem- 
edy for man, unless it be in perfect harmony with that Mind. 
But to find that even He approves it ; that He, who is himself 
the Infinite Reason, beholds in the satisfaction for sin which 
it provides a reason paramount to all law, a reason to which 
even justice bows, and before which it retires ; that He who 
is himself absolute perfection should not only commend it as 
perfect in itself, but should actually employ it as his chosen 
instrument for restoring perfection to beings who had lost it ; 
that all the laws of his moral government consent to it, and 
all the principles of his nature rejoice in it ; is of itself suffi- 
cient to arm it with an arresting and attractive power. Now, 
the Savior knew this : he knew that the cross, as the medium 
of forgiveness, is the direct product of the divine mind; 
that all the riches of the divine nature are poured into it ; 
that nothing in the treasury of the divine resources would be 
deemed too costly to adorn it, in order to commend it to the 
world, and to insure its acceptance. He could not doubt, 
therefore, that the cross, which had moved God in his judicial 
capacity, will finally be made to move the world ; that, as it is 
the centre around which the purposes of mercy revolve, so 
all the affections of man will be gathered about it also ; that 
the very fact that God commends it would, when known, 
invest it with an unlimited sway over every renovated human 
heart. Yes, he had looked into the mind of man, and 
he saw that, debased and imbruted as sin had made us, there 
are still slumbering within us those great principles and 
powers originally meant to control our nature, and that he 
who should succeed in awakening them would obtain the 
mastery over the whole man. He saw that by suffering he 
should awaken its sympathies; that by suffering for us he 



STATED AND EXPLAINED. 49 

should engage its gratitude ; that by suffering for sin, which 
he hated, — " bearing our sins in his own body on the tree," 
— he should be the means of awakening its astonishment and 
love ; that by thus giving to it " a good hope," he should be 
moving the very first principle of moral power. 

He was the maker of the mind, and knew all its mysteri- 
ous laws and secret springs. That singular law which we 
call the principle of association, and which is to mind, in 
effect, what the law of attraction is to matter, drawing 
together ideas connected by common affinities, and repelling 
others having no such congeniality, was a law of his own ap- 
pointment. And he saw how exquisitely the doctrine of the 
cross was adapted, resulting, as it does, from the first princi- 
ples in the divine nature, to touch and move the first prin- 
ciples in ours, and thus to become, through the agency of the 
Holy Spirit, a new principle of mental and moral association. 
But he knew that, besides this, the human mind was consti- 
tuted for the reception and enthronement of one central and 
ruling idea, the idea of God ; that that idea in its purity and 

i vigor has been lost from the mind ; that, in the absence of 
this primary principle, the mind is involved in moral confu- 
sion, and the passions perverted by an unlicensed association 
of ideas ; and he saw that the cross, imbodying, as it does, 
the essential compassion and love of God, was divinely cal- 
culated to restore order by obtaining ascendency, and to 
become the all-subordinating principle of the enlightened 
mind. Though we may not be able by an effort of our will 
to call up any one train of thought, we can, by the power of 
the will, select at pleasure any single thought in the succes- 
sion, and dwell upon it with deep and prolonged attention ; 
and he saw how eminently the cross is calculated to be that 
object ; to rivet the attention and engross the affections of 
the renewed mind. 

He saw that, as every truth, intellectual, moral, and spirit- 

; ual, is invested by the God of truth with an influence and a 
power corresponding with its peculiar nature and its impor- 
tance ; and that as spiritual truths are above and beyond all 
others, as relating to the spiritual and loftiest part of our 
nature ; so the great truth of the world's redemption — the 
very greatest for a sinful and ruined spirit — would only need 
to be proclaimed and put into divine activity — to be brought 
by the Great Spirit into vital contact and combination with 
the heart of the world, in order to draw it with irresistible 
5 



50 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

attraction to the Author of that truth. Mighty truths were 
extant before — truths which created other truths — which, 
wherever they were announced, quickened into activity 
the general mind, called forth the mental resources of a 
people, and went vibrating on through the universe. But a 
truth was wanting, fitted to receive the great power of God — 
to be " the power of God unto the salvation " of all who 
should believe it — a truth which should animate all other 
truths — shed a flood of light and a stimulating influence on 
original but neglected obligations, and thus be the means of 
renovating the world. And the Savior knew that his atoning 
sacrifice was that great conservative truth. He knew that, as 
no act terminates in itself, but tends to propagate an influ- 
ence in obedience to its own laws, and commensurate with 
its own force — the event of his death for man's redemption — 
the greatest of all acts — greater than creation — greater than 
any which God has yet accomplished — would necessarily 
carry with it an influence greater than the influence flowing 
from any preceding acts, and therefore calculated, under the 
dispensation of the Spirit, to master and control the whole. 

He saw that as no object in the universe exists alone — that 
as every thing is the centre of an influence which extends to 
all within its circle — so the cross, including as it would the 
means of exciting that love which is the very principle of all 
holy activity — complicated as it was with all interests of 
humanity, would become the centre of an influence, to which 
all other impulses would eventually yield obedience, and a 
centre of attraction around which all other objects would 
finally circulate — that the cross of Calvary would become 
the polar power of the spiritual world, to which every heart 
would tremble and turn. 

He saw in the earnest expectation of the creature waiting 
for the manifestation of the sons of God, struggling to be 
delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious 
liberty of the children of God, joined with the divine adapta- 
tion of the gospel to make that manifestation, and to effect 
that deliverance, a certain pledge of its universal triumph. 
"For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travail- 
eth in pain together until now." But with how much deeper 
an emphasis may it be said that He knows it ! To his omni- 
scient eye the whole race was present. He marked the multi- 
tudes struggling against their fallen condition -r— carrying 
their desires beyond the limits of the present — yearning after 



STATED AND EXPLAINED. 51 

a something undefined. Yes, he knew that his gospel is the 
hope of mankind — that every sigh and struggle of the whole 
creation is an act of homage to the salvation he brought, and 
a guaranty that all men shall eventually be drawn to him. 
And beyond this, he knew that so delighted was the Father 
with his work of mediation, that this redeemed world would 
be made his property, that the hearts of his people would be 
his at will, and all their influences his to wield at pleasure. 
He knew that " for this cause he was to die, and rise, and 
revive, that he might be Lord of the whole." And when, by 
anticipation, he heard them saying, " None of us liveth to 
himself; we are not our own; for us to live is Christ;" 
when, looking onwards, he saw the cross, in the hand of the 
Holy Spirit, attracting human hearts, combining human ener- 
gies, turning every thing into influence, and all that influence 
into one channel ; he exclaimed, " And I, if I be lifted up 
from the earth, will draw all men unto me." 

For " the joy which was thus set before him," He — the 
Son of God — "endured the cross," as the sacrifice for the 
world. Into that act were put the heart of Christ, the love 
of God — and through it comes the mightest influence of the 
Holy Spirit. That cross is the shrine and medium of the 
whole. By becoming the instrument of human redemption, 
it acquires the right and the power to give motives to all ac- 
tions, sanctions to all obligations, objects to all affections, a 
new nature to man, a new character to the world. 

IV. Here, then, is the cross — here are the means for mov- 
ing the world ; where is the agency, or what is the plan, for 
working the mighty engine ? The Eternal Father has been 
moved by it to lift its author up far above all heavens — what 
is the mode by which, now, in his new and exalted capacity, 
he will draw the world in homage to his feet ? So powerfully 
does its influence fall on the mind of God, as the means of 
moral compensation for sin, that he hath given all things into 
his hands — how is it to fall on the minds of men so as to in- 
duce them voluntarily to copy that divine example ? This is 
obviously the critical part of the great process. O, how 
important a theatre has earth become ! Every eye in the 
universe is bent on it. Here is to be fought out the grand 
struggle of evil with good — of hell with heaven. Here 
the influence of the cross is to challenge and vanquish 
every other power ; who is not anxious to know the plan of 
the contest? 



52 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

This brings us to consider the scripture theory of Chris* 
tian instrumentality for the conversion of the world. The 
early triumphs of the gospel demonstrated that the influence 
of the cross was not left to find its way through the world as 
it could — to operate at random. The plan which provided 
the influence of the cross provided, also, the method of its 
diffusion and propagation. And, on inspection, we shall find 
that plan so simple in its principle — so connected in its parts 
— so comprehensive in its outline — and so well adapted for 
efficiency and success, as to show that the wisdom which 
framed it was divine; and that nothing but adherence to it 
is wanting in order to the conversion of the world. 

We have already shown that, by the constitution of our 
nature, we are made to influence each other ; that the perver- 
sion of that influence by sin, is the great secret and means 
of the world's continued depravity ; that, through the agency 
of the Holy Spirit, the doctrine of the cross is the antago- 
nist principle, the counter influence, by which sin is to be van- 
quished and man restored. We may expect, therefore, that 
the instrumentality to be employed in the service of the cross 
will consist of influence also. And, accordingly, human in- 
fluence, deriving its efficacy from Heaven, is the specific in- 
strumentality by which the gospel proposes to propagate its 
transforming effects. 

But if so, it follows, of course, that such influence should 
be congenial with the character — the moral character — of 
the cross, and be produced by it. For this sufficient reason, 
that every other influence is, in truth, opposed to the gospel, 
and constitutes that which requires to be changed by it. The 
cross stands alone in the world. It does not find friends, it 
makes them. If it wants an agency, it has to create it. If 
the iron is to attract, it must itself be magnetized. And if 
the Savior proposes to employ human instrumentality for 
drawing all men unto him, he has first to magnetize that agen- 
cy at the cross, the great centre of moral attraction. 

1. But how shall the gospel commence its operations on 
man — individually, or socially? Civilization commonly 
begins with man in his social capacity, by giving laws to a 
community ; expecting that they will gradually impart their 
appropriate influence to each of its individual members. But 
Christianity contemplates man, in the first place, in his in- 
dividual capacity. For, besides the fact of his personal 
responsibility to God, his reception of it, as far as human 



STATED AND EXPLAINED. 53 

authority is concerned, is perfectly voluntary. The gospel, 
therefore, proceeds on the supposition that onfy a single mem- 
ber of a whole community may embrace it ; and by address- 
ing men at first in their individual capacity, it saves that 
single member ; whereas, had his salvation been suspended on 
the will of the community, it would have been made impos- 
sible, owing to their rejection of the gospel. Besides which, 
Christianity proceeds on the supposition so often realized, 
that it may only have a solitary agent to convey its message 
to a whole community ; and that in the midst of that com- 
munity he may long labor single-handed and alone. It begins 
with the individual, therefore, that it may advance to the 
society. In order to the cohesion and polarity of the globe, 
every atom of which it is composed is, in its separate capa- 
city, possessed of polarity and attraction. And in order to 
the ultimate evangelization of the world, the gospel operates, 
as it advances, on each of its component parts. 

And, here, be it carefully remarked, that the doctrine of the 
cross triumphs, not in the same way as other kinds of truth 
produce their results — by its mere fitness to convince the 
judgment, and approve itself to the mind. We believe, in- 
deed, that the gospel has this fitness ; that light is not more 
suited to the eye, than the entire system of evangelical truth 
is adapted to the original principles of human nature. And 
we believe that, owing to this inherent adaptation alone, the 
gospel can produce the mightiest civil and social results, 
without the aid of any special supernatural influence. And 
we believe that, because of this inherent adaptation, it is that 
God employs it to produce the great spiritual result of regen- 
eration. But, then, we believe that in the production of this 
result, its mere adaptation alone would leave it quite impo- 
tent ; that here it encounters a kind and a degree of resist- 
ance which renders a Divine Agency indispensable ; that 
here the influence of the Spirit comes into operation ; and 
that on this account it is called " the power of God," because 
God alone renders it powerful to salvation. Hence, also, 
"faith" is termed "the gift of God." And God is repre- 
sented as " opening the heart to receive the word." Still, the 
Spirit of God is pleased to produce the effect through the 
medium of the truth ; and hence the apostle Peter represents 
Christians as those who " have purified their souls in obeying 
the truth through the Spirit." Most impressively, too, is the 
same combination implied in the command of Christ "to hear 
5* 



54 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

what the Spirit saith," although he himself was the speaker ; 
reminding us that this is emphatically the dispensation of the 
Third Person in the Glorious Trinity ; that every voice in the 
church — even the voice of Christ himself — is in a sense 
subordinate to the Spirit, and can be heard with salutary 
effect only as the Spirit repeats it, and conveys it into the soul. 

Now, in attempting to describe its transforming power on 
the human heart, it is somewhat disheartening to reflect that 
we are most likely addressing those to whom the subject 
has become comparatively trite, and almost every mode of 
presenting it, perfectly familiar. The very facility with 
which the understanding apprehends our meaning, and the 
readiness with which the judgment admits it, allows no 
time for the sublime truth to settle down upon the heart. 
In order, therefore, to do any thing like justice to the 
subject, it is necessary that the individual supposed to be 
subjected to the influence in question should be taken, not 
from among ourselves, but from a region where the power 
and even the name of the gospel is unknown. Christianity 
is the only successful antagonist which sin has ever encoun- 
tered ; in order, therefore, to exhibit its influence fully, he 
should be taken from the darkness and distance of nature, 
where sin had operated on him unchecked, working out all 
its deadly effects, and reducing him to its dreadful purposes ; 
and he should be brought, with all his depravity and guilt 
upon him, into the full light, and under the direct power, of 
the gospel. 

Now, in this state, he is chiefly assailable at three points. 
Fortified in evil, as he may appear to be, there are yet three 
sides, so to speak, on which he may be approached, by the 
Spirit of truth, with irresistible effect — his immortality, his 
guilt, and his infinite danger. These are subjects relating to 
parts and principles of his nature which an abandoned world 
overlooks — it has little or nothing by which it can appeal to 
them if it would — and yet they lie at the very foundation of 
his constitution, so that whoever shall succeed in making him 
sensible of his immortality, in alarming his conscience to the 
danger to which all that immortality is exposed by sin, and 
then in delivering him from the whole, will necessarily acquire 
a master influence over his whole nature forever. Now, the 
gospel does this. It does not affect a part of his nature 
merely. It does not operate superficially on the senses ; nor 
convince his judgment, and leave his heart uninterested ; nor 



STATED AND EXPLAINED. 55 

move his passions merely, to the neglect of his judgment and 
his will. It goes in, and down, to the depths of his nature. 
It goes directly to move that which moves the whole man. 

The world hides a man from himself — conceals from him 
the most important part of his nature. By shutting out the 
prospect of eternity, he loses sight of his immortality ; and 
by constantly appealing to his senses, and thus keeping in 
exercise only the inferior parts of his nature, he tends to 
settle down into a mere creature of time. But the first effect, 
perhaps, which the gospel produces, is to reveal him to him- 
self. But coming to him as a message from another world, 
he starts into a consciousness of his relation to that world — 
and by addressing itself to the spiritual part of his nature, he 
becomes sensible, however vaguely at first, that he is in some 
way related to the spiritual, the infinite, and the eternal. 
Now, it is obvious how this very first impression, by throwing 
open a part of the temple of his nature which had been 
hitherto shut up — the very sanctuary, containing the symbol 
of divinity — prepares him to receive with deep effect every 
other communication which may come to him from the same 
quarter. 

Not only does the world conceal from a man his spiritual 
and immortal nature, by allowing it to fall into disuse, — it 
tends also to merge the fact of his individual accountableness 
| — his distinct personal responsibility. From living in society, 
and finding his interests and relations inseparably complicated 
with those of others, he comes to think of himself only as an 
undistinguishable part of a great whole. He loses himself in 
the crowd. But the gospel individualizes and detaches. It 
tells him of a law by which all the laws of society are them- 
selves to be judged, but of which his life has been an un- 
broken violation — of a book in which his personal history is 
recorded moment by moment — of a Being who can disen- 
tangle and detach him from all his complicated relations, and 
assign to his every thought and word its precise character — 
and of a place and a punishment so exactly and necessarily 
resulting from his guilt, and proportioned to it, that he is the 
only being in the universe to whom they could be assigned. 
The only way, therefore, in which it can treat with him is in 
person. It lays its awakening and arresting hand on his 
personal conscience. It demands a personal interview — a 
conference in the centre of his nature. It brings forward his 
guilt into the strong light of distinct consciousness. Even if 



56 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

the gospel allowed him to act by another, his own conscience 
is now too deeply interested to permit it. All his faculties 
and powers seem collected into a point — the entire soul be 
comes conscience, and that conscience is against him — ac- 
cuser, witness, and judge. As if the judgment had been set 
and the books opened, as if his personal case had been ad- 
judged, his doom pronounced, and he himself suspended over 
the bottomless gulf, he feels that he is lost. His nature is 
now stirred to its depths, and his soul is one region of alarm. 
Mere sympathy now will receive his deep, deep gratitude ; 
deliverance would secure his heart forever. The Being who 
shall now arrive to his rescue will infallibly acquire an influ- 
ence over the whole man, and may calculate on his allegiance 
forever. 

To ask if the world, or any person or power belonging to 
it, can extend the aid which the crisis demands, would be 
sheer impertinence. That is the very power which has 
brought on the crisis, and from which he requires to be res- 
cued. So completely is he now detached from it in heart 
and hope, that he turns round and looks back on it, with 
wonder at its infatuation, aversion for its sins, and yearning 
pity for its state. The cloud which threatens him with its 
bolt, impends also over it. What must he " do to be saved " ? 

In the absence of all the objects he has been accustomed 
to confide in, in the clear and open space which their with- 
drawment has left around him, behold the cross ! All the 
forms of terror and ministers of justice which his sins had 
armed against him blend and melt into a form of love dying 
for his rescue. The cross has received the lightnings of the 
impending cloud, and has painted upon it the bow of hope. 
To his anxious inquiry, " What he must do to be saved?" 
the cross echoes back, Be saved, and every object around 
him joyfully repeats, Be saved. Then God is love ! and the 
cross is the stupendous expedient by which he harmonizes 
that love with the rectitude of his government ! Then the 
sinner need not perish ! and this is the amazing means of 
his salvation ! Had it ever been his lot to gaze on the ap- 
palling spectacle of an ordinary crucifixion, the sight would 
probably have left an image on his mind never to be effaced. 
Is it possible, then, that he can behold " Jesus Christ, evi- 
dently set forth crucified before his eyes ; " that he can know 
the dignity of the sufferer, as God manifest in the flesh ; can 
believe that he hates the sin as deeply as he loves the sinner ; 



STATED AND EXPLAINED. 57 

can reflect that the effect of his death is to be his own deliv- 
erance ; and can look into the heart of this great mystery 
and find it to be love, without experiencing a change ? If 
every word which he hears spoken even by a fellow-man 
leaves some impression on his mind, can he hear that he is 
saved, and believe that the voice which assures him of salva- 
tion is the voice of God, without feeling it thrill through 
every faculty of the soul ? If every object and event he may 
witness produces some effect on his character — is it possi- 
ble that the event which is to affect his whole being forever — 
which for him shuts forever the gate of hell, and throws open 
and fills with visions of glory the ample spaces of eternity, 
should produce only a transient and slender impression? 
Must he not, by necessity of nature, love him, without whom 
he would soon have had nothing in the universe to love, but 
have been eternally hateful even to himself? Must he not 
render obedience to him, without whom the chains of his 
slavery would soon have been riveted forever ? He waits not 
for a reply; he needs not a command. He is under the 
mastery of a principle which is its own law — a principle of 
boundless gratitude and love. The power of the cross has 
moved the primary forces of his nature — the mysterious 
springs of Hope and Fear, of Adoration and Love. The 
world has lost him. His heart is at the feet of Christ. He 
dates life and happiness from the transition. Henceforth he 
moves in a region of which the cross is the central object, 
and where the benignant and attractive influences which 
stream from it in all directions, hold him in willing and de- 
lighted allegiance. 

Here, then, is the secret of that supreme influence which 
the gospel exercises over the man whom the world had de- 
\ based and sin had ruined ; and this is the line of truth along 
which the Spirit of God delights to operate. By acquainting 
him with his immortality, it, in effect, gives him a soul, and 
gives it on the threshold of a new and eternal world. By 
acquainting him with his responsibility and guilt, it calls his 
conscience from the dead ; and by unveiling to him the mys- 
tery of the cross, by which that guilt is cancelled, and that 
immortality entitled to heaven, one overpowering sentiment 
subjects his whole nature to the authority of Christ. The 
Spirit has taken of the things of Christ, and has shown them 
to him with so transforming an effect, that he is " a new crea- 
ture in Christ Jesus." 



58 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

We are to suppose, then, that the gospel has, in this way, 
won its first convert ; that the transforming effects, which the 
Savior ascribed to his being lifted up from the earth, have 
taken place upon him. Here is a man imbued with the spirit 
of the cross, and ready to sacrifice life in its service — how 
is he to be employed ? He is not to live to himself; for by 
the sentence of a law which has gone forth from the cross, 
he who lives to himself is not a Christian. He has not been 
" created anew in Christ Jesus " for mere self-enjoyment or 
idle show — that the act might terminate in itself. Every 
thing in nature exists for a purpose. Even the atom of the 
rock has its appointed place, and its definite end. Surely 
man — and, of all men, the Christian — is not exempt from 
this law ! What, then, is his destiny ? 

Here is evidently a fitting agent for Christ to employ. No 
other being in the universe has the shadow of a claim to him, 
beyond that which his new proprietor may choose to grant. 
Every part and property of his nature, and every moment of 
his future existence, have been bought — paid for with " pre- 
cious blood." And as the new interest to which he is pledged 
is opposed by every other, he cannot yield to any other claim- 
ant, even for a moment, without lending himself, during that 
moment, to a hostile party ; so that he has no alternative but 
that of devoting himself unreservedly to Christ. Accordingly, 
the Savior claims him for himself. From the moment he 
felt the power of the cross, his duty became definite, impera- 
tive, one. If every other member of the human family were 
abandoned to live without control — if the sun itself were 
abandoned to wander through infinite space — Ms course 
would yet be minutely prescribed. As if he alone held the 
great secret of the cross, and were consequently the most 
important being on the face of the earth, his every moment is 
charged with an appointed duty. As if he had been recalled 
from the state of death ; yes, not merely as if he had been 
called out of nothingness into existence — not merely as if he 
had been selected and sent down from the ranks of the blessed 
above — but with stronger motives still, as if his guilty soul 
had been recalled from perdition, where the undying worm 
had found him, and the unquenchable flame had enwrapped 
him, and his dissolved body recalled from the dust of death — 
and as if he had literally come out of the tomb with Christ, 
and had received life and salvation together at the mouth of 
the sepulchre, at the hand of Christ — all his new-found 



STATED AND EXPLAINED. 59 

powers are to be held by him as a precious trust for the ser- 
vice of Christ. As if he had come forth from the sepulchre 
at first with life only — and as if his reason, knowledge, affec- 
tions, speech, property, had there been restored to him sep- 
arately, and in succession, with a distinct intimation accom- 
panying each, that he received it back for Christ, he is to 
look on himself, henceforth, as a part of the cross, as taken 
up into the great designs of Christ — as bound up for life 
and death in his plans of mercy. His character is to be a 
reproduction of the character of Christ. The disinterested- 
ness which appeared in Christ, is to reappear in him. The 
tenderness of Christ — his untold solicitude for human souls, 
is to live over again in his tones of entreaty, his wrestling 
prayer for their salvation. The blood of the cross itself is, 
in a sense, to stream forth again, in his tears of anguish, his 
voluntary and vicarious self-sacrifice to draw men to Christ. 
And if tempted to lend but a particle of his influence to any 
other claimant than Christ, his reply is at hand — " I am not 
my own, I am Christ's. He has put it out of my power to 
give him more than belongs to him, for he has purchased and 
challenges the whole through every moment of time ; and 
x)ut of my will to give him less, for, if I know any grief, it 
is that my all should so inadequately express my sense of 
obligation." 

2. Now, all this necessarily invests the new convert with 
influence ; and with influence of the same kind as that which 
instrumentally drew him to Christ — influence already felt, 
perhaps, in inferior degrees by many around him ; and, ac- 
cordingly, we are to suppose that, under God, he becomes 
the means of drawing some of these to Christ. Now, as 
union is strength, would it not be desirable that he and they 
should be organized into a society for the purpose of com- 
bining and diffusing their influence farther still 1 Here, then, 
is the next step in the theory of Christian influence — the 
formation of individual Christians into a church. The pri- 
mary design of a church, indeed, is the spiritual benefit of 
the members composing it ; that each might enjoy the assist- 
ance of all ; that the Christian principles and graces of the 
whole community might be collected and concentrated into a 
focus, and each believer might stand at pleasure under its 
salutary and transforming influence ; that scope might be 
afforded for the exercise of sympathy, and forbearance, and 
holy emulation ; that each might feel his weakness supported, 



60 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

and his courage animated, by the presence of the whole — 
feel that, although he is " the least of all saints," he is a vital 
member of an organized body, allied to Christ, the living 
Head, and, through Him, identified with all the excellence in 
the universe. 

But the great ulterior object of forming them into a church, 
is the increase of their usefulness to the world ; and hence it 
is hat every increase of their own prosperity is so much in- 
crease of their capacity for usefulness. In other words, in 
the formation and design of this church, we behold that prin- 
ciple of mutual dependence and reciprocal influence, which 
sin had perverted into the means of the world's destruction, 
recovering its original value as the means of the world's re- 
generation ; for here, " the communion of the saints," by 
heightening their piety, quickening their activity, and com- 
bining their resources, increases their fitness for the world's 
conversion. 

As a church, the mere circumstance of their separation 
from the world is, of itself, sufficient to attract attention. 
Their number invests them with comparative importance. 
Their formation iuto a visible society raises them into the 
rank of a distinct power. If we wish to render an object 
conspicuous, we detach it from surrounding objects, and place 
it apart ; and if we wish to make it still more conspicuous, 
we increase it, multiply it to the utmost. The light of the 
sun is composed of particles inconceivably minute, which, 
taken separately, and placed at a distance from each other, 
would be lost in darkness ; but, collected into that glorious 
orb, it attracts the eyes of ten thousand worlds, and becomes 
an image of the glory of God himself. Believers are to shine 
as lights in the world : but this end they answer best when 
their radiance is collected into the orb of a Christian church. 

As a church, they are raised into an independence of the 
world ; and thus furnish mankind with a standing represen- 
tation of another world ; of other laws than earth obeys ; and 
of a higher order of enjoyment and power than man pos- 
sesses, derived from a source superior to all created means. 
Its union to him, and oneness with him, make it independent 
of all the universe besides. 

As a church, they are to acquire and wield an influence 
of a character essentially distinct from that of all around, and 
incomparably superior to it. Whatever the moral state of 
the world may be, their fitness to improve it will depend, 



STATED AND EXPLAINED. 61 

under God, on the breadth and distinctness of the line of 
demarkation which separates them from it, and on the per- 
fection of contrast to the world which they exhibit. The 
world, for instance, is selfish, acts without reference to a su- 
preme will, and constitutes itself the end of all it does. How 
important, then, that they should imbody the self-sacrificing 
spirit of Christ ! To do this by halves only, to study their 
own aggrandizement, or to live in comparative indolence and 
luxury, would be to symbolize with the world, and to confirm 
it in its besetting sin. But they are to exhibit that fiction of 
the world — a life of self-denial. By relinquishing all de- 
lights, all passions, all pursuits, by which the world is en- 
grossed and enslaved, and by going out of themselves, aban- 
doning themselves, evincing a readiness to sacrifice life itself 
in the cause of Christ, they are to stand out in vivid contrast 
with the selfishness of the world, silently to condemn it, to 
proclaim a will higher than human, the responsibility of men 
to that will, and the supreme happiness of absolute confor- 
mity to it. And thus they are to prepare men to hear with 
effect of that sacrifice compared with which nothing else can 
ever deserve the name. 

The world is sensual, supremely influenced by the visible 
and the present. The constancy and force with which the 
human body gravitates to the earth is only an emblem of the 
manner in which the universal heart of man tends to the con- 
cerns and objects of the world. But the members of this 
new society are to come out from the world, and to " be sep- 
arate ; " " to love not the world, nor the things of the world ; " 
" to set their affections on things above." The cross is to 
them the perpetual memorial of a nobler world, the represent- 
ative of the most glorious being there, and the medium of 
constant communication with it. As if they were daily stand- 
ing in the open portal of that celestial state, and surveying 
the glories within, they are to evince a decided superiority to 
all the objects of worldly pursuit. And as if they were em- 
powered to take others with them there, and were only waiting 
here till they had succeeded, they are to move among them 
as men not of this world ; angels partly on the wing. 

Now this twofold principle of worldly selfishness, or selfish 

sensuality, is the ruling principle of man and the essence of 

his guilt. How important, then, that the Christian church 

should stand out from the world in bold and bright relief, as 

6 



62 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

the representative of the pure and unworldly benevolence of 
the cross ! 

As a church, the faithful are intrusted with means emi- 
nently calculated to affect and benefit the world around. 
They possess the ministry of reconciliation — and of what 
use is that but to " beseech men to be reconciled to God " ? 
They are encouraged to pray, as a church, by a promise of 
divine success greater than any which is guarantied to their 
separate and solitary requests. " If two of you shall agree 
on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be 
done for them of my Father who is in heaven. For where 
two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I 
in the midst of them." We are assured that, in reclaiming 
the sinner, " the effectual fervent prayer" of even one of the 
faithful " availeth much." But here is a promise made to 
the united prayer of the church, over and above that which 
is made to private devotion, and a power conferred on it 
greater than that which is promised to all its members praying 
separately. 

As a church, they have a special sphere of labor. How- 
ever small the circle of Christian influence which each one 
separately filled before, from the moment they constitute a 
church, the hand that so formed them may be regarded as 
drawing around them a circle which includes " the region 
round about." As a church, they are now charged with a 
collective responsibility ; all the souls within that circle are 
in a measure given into their hands. And hence all their 
means — the mite of the widow and the wealth of the afflu- 
ent, the leisure of one and the learning of another, the ardor 
of the young, the wisdom of the aged, the resources of all, 
are to be combined and devoted to the object of saving them. 
Here, the motto of each is to be, " None of us liveth to him- 
self; " — each one is assigned a post of labor ; the influence 
of each, by union with all, is made to be felt ; and as often 
as others are added to them, they are to regard the circle as 
proportionally enlarged, and are again to fill it to the cir- 
cumference with the influence of the cross. 

3. In this way other churches are supposed to be planted. 
Each of these becomes the centre of a new circumference. 
Every place to which its influence reaches is to be a point 
for extending it farther still. Bursting the limits of neigh- 
borhood, and the confines of country, they are to carry the 



STATED AND EXPLAINED. 63 

cross into other lands, there to rally around it other hearts, 
and thus to obtain the means of further conquests still. Now, 
if the influence of the first converts was augmented by collect- 
ing them into one compact society, would it not proportionally 
augment the influence of these several societies, if they were 
all sympathetically united, and visibly to cooperate as one 
church ? True, the obstacles are great, the sources of dis- 
union and division many ; but so much the greater the influ- 
ence which would arise from the spectacle of their union. 
For in that event, their union would be their strength, not 
only by increasing their actual resources, but also by evin- 
cing to the world the surpassing power of that principle which 
could thus harmonize their jarring natures, and fuse all their 
hearts and interests into one. 

Now, this, we know, is the third step in the Scripture the- 
ory of Christian instrumentality for the conversion of the 
world. So essential a part of the theory is this, that the 
Savior more than commanded, he prayed for it ; prayed for 
it at the foot of the cross ; prayed for it there as a means of the 
world's conversion — " That they all may be one * * * * that 
the world may believe that thou hast sent me." The reason 
of their union as a whole, is one of the very reasons of their 
existence at all — the conversion of the world. Diversified 
as they are in mind, country, condition, age, one subject of 
emulation is to displace every other — who shall do most for 
the diffusion of that love which draws them to the cross, and 
which there binds them to each other 1 Zeal is to come 
from one part of the church, to be directed by Wisdom from 
another part. Here, agents of mercy are sent forth; and, 
there, they are met by funds for their support. The convic- 
tion that in every enterprise of benevolence they carry with 
them the sympathies and prayers of the church, keeps them, 
on the one hand, from the thought of declining, and puts 
them, on the other, on deeds of heroism in the cause of God 
which call forth the glad applauses of Heaven. Such a union 
of love in a selfish world could not fail to arrest the public 
eye, and to assail and affect the public heart. But not long 
would the world be left to speculate and wonder about it. 
They would find that the church had united for an object — 
that that object was their conversion — that they were actually 
beleaguered and assailed in every form, and on every side, by 
the united and irresistible forces of Christian love. Thus 
while, within itself, the church presents the attractive and 



64 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

glorious spectacle of a universal feast of love ; in relation to 
those without, it is to present one scene of spiritual enter- 
prise and commerce, carried on for the advantage of the 
world at large , and visible to the universe. Convinced that 
such a union of love in a selfish world could be only resolved 
into a heavenly cause, mankind would be the more prepared 
to recognize the divinity of the Savior's claims, and grate- 
fully to capitulate to his offered grace. 

4. But now comes the last step — the -crowning influence 
— that without which all the other parts of the theory are 
useless — the effusion of the Holy Spirit upon the whole. 
His presence, indeed, is, as has been already remarked, essen- 
tial, and is taken for granted, in the renovation of each indi- 
vidual heart, and in the formation of every separate church. 
In the scheme of salvation, every instrument and agent has 
its appropriate place, and its appointed order of succession. 
In that arrangement, the Spirit is the prime mover of the 
whole. But his full impartation is reserved for the combina- 
tion of the whole. Mightily as that spectacle of Christian 
union is calculated to tell on the sinful influences of earth, 
as mightily is it to tell, in another respect, on the divine 
influences of heaven. It is to draw down the very source of 
influence himself. " For there is one body and one Spirit " — 
an entire body for an entire spirit. Having drawn them to 
one centre, and there united them in one object, that he 
might exhibit and employ them in one body, he is then to 
animate and inhabit them as the one soul of the whole. It is 
then to appear that their union is cemented, not only by him, 
but for him; for only let that union be complete, and forth- 
with he will be seen impelling the entire body of the faithful 
to one undivided effort for the conversion of the world — his 
sword the weapon they employ — his inspiration animating 
them to the fight — his unmeasured power, as the great Mis- 
sionary Spirit of the church, convincing the world of sin, 
and, as the Glorifier of Jesus, crowning their instrumentality 
with complete success. 

Here, then, we behold an answer to the question which we 
lately proposed — Where is the agency, and what is the plan, 
for drawing the world to the cross 1 Here is an agency or- 
ganized expressly for this, and useful for nothing else. Here, 
if we briefly examine, we shall find that every element at 
work is an element of influence in harmony with the cross, 
and subordinate to it. The same agencies, which, in the 



STATED AND EXPLAINED. 65 

world, operate against the cross, will here be found to oper- 
ate for it ; and other agencies, of which the world knows 
nothing, are here called into existence, and added to them. 

Knowledge is a means of usefulness — " is power. 5 ' " There 
is no power on earth," said the great man who originated 
that proverb, " which setteth up a throne, or chair of state, 
in the spirits and souls of men, but knowledge." He who is 
the discoverer or sole possessor of a moral truth, has it in his 
power to exercise a sovereignty which approaches nearer than 
any other to the likeness of the divine rule. Not only is he 
stronger than any ether man, or than any given number of 
men, but stronger than all the race together. Now, the Chris- 
tian has had disclosed to him the doctrine of the cross. His 
hand is on a lever which can move the world — on the lever 
which shall move it — and his hand is there that instrument- 
ally he may attempt to move it. Moses, descending radiant 
from divine communion, in the mount; — the High Priest 
reappearing from within the mysterious veil ; — Isaiah, fresh 
from the visions of the Lord, never returned to the waiting 
and breathless people with a burden so precious — a truth so 
great — as that which he holds. It is that from which all 
other truths derive their force; it comes " not in word only, 
but in power ; " it is, emphatically, " the power of God unto 
salvation to every one that believeth." It enables him to give 
back the world to God ; and, by unveiling the Great Pro- 
pitiation, to contribute towards giving back to God a world. 

Speeeli is a means of influence. It is the great instrument 
for the interchange of thought and feeling. The thoughts of 
a community are by this means kept in perpetual circulation, 
and the long-cherished sentiment of a private individual is 
propagated till it acquires the force and universality of a law, 
and " sets on fire the whole course of nature." To say noth- 
ing of the power of public oratory, the simplest conversation 
has an effect on the minds of those who engage in it, regu- 
lated by laws as certain as those which direct the lightning 
in its course. So that never do we come out from such in- 
tercourse the same persons as we entered. The most casual 
remark lives forever in its effects. There is not a word 
which has not a moral history. Hence the Satanic art of 
calling all evil things by harmless names ; and hence it is, 
too, that every "idle word" which men utter, assumes a 
character so important, that it will be made a subject of 
inquest in the general judgment. 
6* 



66 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

But the Christian is taught to regard the faculty of speech 
as a vehicle and means of grace. If the noblest use of his 
reason be to know God, the highest employment of his speech 
must be to impart that knowledge ; and the highest knowl- 
edge of Him which he can impart is surely that for which 
Christ himself assumed the power of human speech, and to 
the announcement of which he devoted it. In the church, 
language is promoted into the grand ordinance of preaching 
Christ. Whoever his audience may be, the Christian is to 
"minister grace to the hearers." Even when he is not con- 
versing on grace, his speech is to be " always with grace;" 
in harmony with his religious character, and favorable to a 
hallowed impression. Like the narrative and incidental parts 
of Scripture, it is to illustrate and subserve the sacred and 
saving tendency of the whole. In the salvation of the cross, 
the gospel has supplied him with a theme of which his heart 
is supposed to be full ; and " he cannot but speak the things 
which he has heard and seen." Every man he meets is in- 
terested in it as deeply as himself. Every individual he ad- 
dresses may be perishing through want of it. Every conver- 
sation he holds with others affords him an opportunity of 
introducing it. Every word he has to utter concerning it, is 
" good news." Unless he speak, they may die in ignorance 
of it ; — and he is held conditionally responsible for every 
word he might have uttered, but omitted ; and for every soul 
that perishes through that neglect. " He believes, and there- 
fore speaks." As if his lips had been touched with sacred 
fire, or sprinkled with consecrating blood, he is to stand in 
the midst of his circle as the oracle of the cross. His words 
are no longer his own ; as if his were the tongue of Christ 
himself, or the only tongue on earth that could testify of the 
wonders of the cross, he is to regard himself as set apart to 
bear witness of Christ. And as it is his office, so it is to be 
his holy ambition, so to announce and make him known, that 
at the close of life, and even of each day of life, he may be 
able to say, as Christ himself appealed to the Father, and 
said, though in an inferior sense, " I have declared unto them 
thy name, and will declare it." 

Relationship, zohetlier natural or acquired, is a means of 
usefulness. The parent, for instance, possesses an influence 
over his offspring more powerful than the mightiest monarch 
ever swayed over his subjects. His voice is the first music 
they hear ; his smiles their bliss ; his authority, the image 



STATED AND EXPLAINED. 67 

and substitute of the divine authority. So absolute is the 
law which impels them to believe his every word, to imitate 
his every tone, gesture, and action, and to receive the in- 
effaceable impressions of his character, that his every move- 
ment drops a seed into the virgin soil of their hearts, to ger- 
minate there for eternity. His influence, by blending itself 
with their earliest conceptions, and incorporating with the 
very elements of their constitution, and by the constancy, 
subtlety, variety, and power of its operation, gives him a 
command over their character and destiny, which renders it 
the most appropriate emblem on earth of the influence of 
God himself. 

Now, there is not a member of the human family who does 
not sustain some relation, original or acquired, public or 
private, permanent or temporary — nor is there any relation 
which does not invest the person sustaining it with some de- 
gree of influence. The particle of dust which we heedlessly 
tread beneath our foot, propagates its influence beyond the 
remotest planet, and is felt through all space. And though 
a man may be apparently standing on the outermost verge of 
the social system, he forms a vital link in the great chain of 
dependence which runs through the universe, linking man 
to man, age to age, and world to world. The connection, 
indeed, may not be visible to us to any great distance ; yet 
does it exist as really as if he found himself standing in the 
centre of the universe, with visible lines of relation drawn 
from himself to every one of the congregated myriads ; nor 
is it possible to detach him from the mighty whole. And — 
what is of importance to remark — not only is there no re- 
lation of life which does not invest the person sustaining it 
with some degree of influence, but which does not afford 
him the power of exerting an influence in it which no other 
being on earth possesses. 

Here, then, is an important talent which the Christian is 
supposed to occupy for Christ. As if the relations which he 
sustains had been appointed now for the first time, and ap- 
pointed expressly to give him a sphere of Christian influence, 
he is to hold them chiefly for Christ. And, indeed, for what 
but holy purposes were the primary and principal relations 
of life designed at first? For " did he not make one? yet 
had he the residue of the Spirit. And wherefore one ? That 
he might seek a godly seed." So that, in holding his rela- 
tionships for Christ, the renewed man is but restoring them 



68 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

to the purpose from which sin has dissevered them. Is he a 
parent? " The promise is unto him and to his children." 
As he is related to the first Adam, they receive from him 
nothing but an inheritance of guilt, degradation, and death ; 
but as related to the second, he is to aim to cut off the dread- 
ful entail, and to train them to be sons and daughters of the 
Lord Almighty ; as if they had been sent down to him in 
angel arms from heaven with a divine command to train them 
for Christ. He is to radiate on them nothing but hallowed 
influence. Their first lispings are to be of Christ; their first 
imaginings of his love ; and their earliest steps to his foot- 
stool. The influence of his Christian character is to sur- 
round them like the atmosphere of a temple ; that, by being 
breathed and mingled with their earliest being, it may become 
an elementary part of their character. As if they had been 
sent to him expressly with a divine charge to illustrate before 
the world the power and excellence of Christian influence, he 
is to set himself apart to the grand experiment of ascertain- 
ing the greatest amount of good which sanctified parental 
agency is calculated to effect ; how completely it can sever 
and secure them from all counter agencies ; how early it can 
affect them ; and how devoted and useful it can render them 
as instruments for propagating the same influence among 
others. In this way he is to illustrate the tremendous opera- 
tion of sin in having perverted a relationship meant for the 
transmission of nothing but good into a channel for the dis- 
charge of an ever-swelling flood of destruction ; and the tran- 
scendent influence of the cross, which, like the tree of Marah, 
tends to medicate its fatal bitterness, and to turn it into a 
stream of salvation. 

But, whatever the relations which he sustains to others, he is 
to regard the influence resulting from it as a cord for drawing 
them to Christ. There is a sense, indeed, in which he stands 
related to the whole race. The cross vibrates to the sounds 
of human misery in every part of the earth, and his heart is 
to thrill in sympathy with it. As the representative of Christ, 
he is to regard himself as the centre of all that misery ; but 
as his Christian duties lie around him in concentric circles, 
and as the first circle includes those most nearly related to 
him, nothing will excuse him for neglecting an inner for an 
outer, because a larger circle. In the day of final account, 
the first subject of inquiry, after that of his own personal 
piety, will relate to the salvation of the souls immediately 



STATED AND EXPLAINED. 69 

around him. How came your wife, or child, or servant, to 
perish ? is a question which cannot be met by a plea that he 
was achieving a distant good. He must not neglect the 
Christian welfare of his own household, then, even for the 
sublime occupation of evangelizing a nation. Nor need he — 
his duty in this case is coincident with his most enlarged 
ideas. For by filling the sphere immediately around him 
first, he is multiplying his agencies for a wider and still wider 
range of usefulness. It is by entering into cohesive union 
with the particles immediately around it, that the atom be- 
comes a component part of the rock, contributes something 
towards the stability of the everlasting hills, and towards the 
gravity of the great globe itself; and by erecting the cross 
in his own house, and converting his own house into a church, 
and that church into a centre of usefulness to the neighbor- 
hood, he is preparing to subserve most effectually the interests 
of the race at large. 

Property is a means of influence. The material itself, 
indeed, of which money is made, is intrinsically worthless ; 
yet having, by the general consent of society, been consti- 
tuted the representative of all property, and, as such, the key 
to all the avenues of worldly enjoyment, it excites some of 
the strongest desires, and reflects some of the deepest emo- 
tions of the human breast. Its fluctuations are the tides of 
national fortune. It sways the heart of the world. Every 
piece of coin that passes through our hand, has been stream- 
ing with influence from the first moment it was put into cir- 
culation. It has a path through society, and a history of its 
own ; rather, it belongs to the history of the world. Industry 
has toiled for it ; enterprise has hazarded life for it; specula- 
tion has gambled for it ; childhood has eyed it ; poverty rejoiced 
over it ; covetousness worshipped it ; — it has passed through 
the hands of profligacy, intemperance, and all the vices. How 
often has it been carried past the temple of God on its way to 
some shrine of Satan ! how seldom been diverted from the 
service of sin ! Could the history of all the wealth of antiquity 
be given, what should we hear, but, substantially, the history 
of the ancient world itself — of its sensual pleasures, its pro- 
jects of ambition, its sanguinary wars, polluting temples, and 
national oppressions ! How great the opportunity, then, which 
the Christian possesses of glorifying God in this department 
alone! While others are sullenly appropriating every thing 
to themselves, as if God had ceased to reign, and even to 



70 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

exist, he is to consecrate and offer up his substance, before 
their eyes, as an oblation to his glory, and thus daily to vin- 
dicate his claims. While they are idolizing money, and ma- 
king it the common object of their trust, he is to strike at its 
very throne, and to awaken them from the dream of its om- 
nipotence, by showing that its highest value arises from its 
subserviency to the purposes of the gospel. He may not 
possess much — but he is to look on himself as intrusted with 
what he does possess partly for the purpose of disparaging it 
before the world. Its influence depends, not on its amount, 
but on the way in which he employs it ; and by casting his 
" two mites " into the temple treasury, he may at once be 
publicly vindicating the outraged supremacy of the " blessed 
God," and asserting the claims of " the glorious gospel," 
and constraining men, more than by a thousand arguments, 
to bow to its divinity. 

Self-denial is a means of useful influence. So unearthly a 
quality is this, that no man can fully and consistently exhibit 
it without exposing himself, perhaps fcr years, to the suspi- 
cion of assuming it for some sinister object in the distance. 
But does not this very incredulity, arising from the extreme 
rareness of true self-denial, hold out to him the promise of 
proportionate influence hereafter, should he live long enough 
to vanquish that incredulity, and to enjoy the reaction of opin- 
ion in his favor ? His self-denial, indeed, is meantime fur- 
nishing him with all those means of benevolence which self- 
indulgence would have lavished on itself; and these, by 
increasing his usefulness, are augmenting his influence. 
But the influence which he acquires, by this increase of actual 
means, is as nothing compared with that which he obtains by 
the fact, when it comes to be known — that he denies himself 
in order to obtain it. The amount which he saves may be 
only an additional mite : but the fact that he habitually denies 
himself in order to obtain it as a means of doing good, will 
ultimately invest him with a greater moral influence than the 
stranger to self-denial, though the giver of thousands, can 
ever possess. 

Now, Christianity is a system of self-denial, and the church 
is supposed to be its home. How can it be otherwise ? Its 
centre is a cross. This is at once the secret of its influence 
to attract, and the means of its power to save. Having felt 
that attraction and experienced that power, the Christian is to 
extend its influence by exhibiting in his own life the image of 



STATED AND EXPLAINED. 71 

the cross. Were it possible for him to live in worldly self- 
indulgence, he would be doing all in his power, not only to 
stop the influence of the cross from extending beyond him- 
self, but to efface from the memory of a world too willing to 
forget — that Christianity ever had a cross. The only evi- 
dence on which the world will believe that Christ was volun- 
tarily crucified for its redemption is, that the Christian be 
seen, in the true spirit of his Lord, voluntarily, and, in a 
sense, vicariously, denying himself, in the work of diffusing 
the blessings of that redemption. 

As the representative of the cross, then, the church is 
charged with a responsibility which requires the principle of 
self-denial to pervade the whole of its instrumentality, and to 
become the law of its beneficence. 

Compassion is a means of useful influence. Even one of its 
tones has often opened the heart, when the rack could not 
open the lips ; and in the Christian church it is supposed to 
reign. The cross is the utterance of divine compassion, 
and the church collected around it is a proof of its power. 
The compassion which bled on the cross here beats in the 
hearts of all its members. They know the wretchedness of 
sin into which the world is sunk — look forwards to the end 
of its course — hear already its doom pronounced — see the 
pit open to receive it — and hear, by anticipation, its hopeless 
cries for deliverance. And the deep anxiety which they feel 
to " snatch the firebrands from the flames," and to quench 
them in the blood of the cross, imparts a depth of tender- 
ness to their tones, an earnestness of solicitude to their man- 
ner, and a combination and energy to their efforts, which 
give them a power over the mind beyond that of the most 
original truths unfeelingly delivered, or the stern authority of 
law itself. 

Persevering activity in the attainment of a useful or be- 
nevolent object is another means of usefulness. It is by perse- 
verance that the small stream of the mountain, a thousand 
leagues from the parent sea, conquers intervening obstacles, 
wears itself a channel, swells to a river, traverses continents, 
gives names to countries, assigns boundaries to empires, and 
becomes celebrated in history. And by patiently persevering 
with his face and step always direct towards his object, a 
single individual will acquire an amount of influence and 
success, in reference to that object, which a multitude, pursu- 
ing it only by convulsive starts, would fail to obtain. The 



72 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

multitude itself, gradually awed into respect for his steady 
onward course, will come at length to clear a space, and 
make way for his advance. And though for years his cause 
may not appear to be attended with any success, an event, 
unexpected perhaps, will at length disclose that there never 
was a moment in which he was not exciting the silent admi- 
ration of some, and preparing numbers to fall into his train, 
and to yield themselves up entirely to his influence. 

Now, the Christian has motives to patient perseverance in 
promoting the knowledge of Christ which no other object 
can inspire, no other man can know. The persisting energy 
which built the mountain pyramids of Egypt — which reared 
the Chinese wall — by which Alexander conquered the old 
world — Columbus discovered the new — and Newton elabo- 
rated the system of the universe, had trifles for its objects, 
compared with the aim of Christian instrumentality to save 
the world. But besides the infinite importance of his object, 
engaging, as it has, the divine perseverance from eternity, 
there never was a moment in the life of Christ, his Great Ex- 
emplar, which was not directly or indirectly made subordinate 
to it ; there is not a moment in which the command is sus- 
pended, " Be not weary in well-doing," " Be always abounding 
in the work of the Lord." So that, unless it can be shown 
that the perishing world ever pauses in its cry for deliverance, 
or that the destroyer ever pauses in working the great system 
of destruction, the Christian can know no moment in which 
it is permitted him to pause in his peculiar vocation. The 
termination of one duty is to be only a signal for the com- 
mencement of another ; his life is to be one continuous act of 
obedience. Every day returns charged with an amount of 
obligation proportioned to his utmost means of usefulness. 
His utmost powers are to be constrained into the service, till 
by the force of habit his perseverance becomes invincible. 
He is to live under the ever-present conviction that he has 
one thing to do, and that he is in danger of dying before it 
is done ; cheered on by the assurance that every act adds a 
ray to the radiance of that crown which he hopes to lay at his 
Savior's feet, and tends to secure the perseverance of others 
when he himself shall have gone to receive it. 

And this reminds us that the great designs of the Christian 
are entailed ; for the church on earth, though mortal in its 
members, as a community is undying. History informs us 
of some governments which, having formed schemes of na- 



STATED AxND EXPLAINED. 73 

fcional aggrandizement too vast to be accomplished within " the 
hour-glass of one man's life/' have devolved the prosecution 
of them as a sacred duty on those who came after them. The 
Christian church is to exhibit the sublime spectacle of an un- 
earthly government, embarked in an enterprise of mercy for 
all time. Its members are " commanded to make it known 
to their children, that the generation to come might know it, 
even the children who should be born ; who should arise and 
declare it to their children." And as time rolls on, the only 
change which this spiritual government is to exhibit is that 
which necessarily arises, under God, from persevering fidelity 
to its original design — extended domains, and a nearer ap- 
proach to universal conquest. "For the greatness of the 
kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the people 
of the saints of the Most High." 

Prayer is influence. Appeals, entreaties, and petitions, 
between man and man, move the affairs of this world ; but 
in the church they move Heaven. All those other things 
which we have described as exercising influence, become spir- 
itually useful only by that power which descends in answer to 
prayer. Other means may be influential, but the amount of 
their influence is calculable, bearing a proportion to the 
power employed ; but prayer, by engaging a divine power, sets 
all calculation at defiance. Other means may be good — but 
what must that be, the effect of which is to bring down Good- 
ness himself? — and yet here the entire church is supposed to 
be in daily, unceasing, impassioned entreaty for the Spirit to 
" convince the world of sin." 

Union is a means of usefulness. And here it is supposed 
to be universal, visible, divine. As to each individual ; here 
is the union of the whole man — all his principles and pas- 
sions combined — no part of his nature wanting — no part 
shedding a counter-influence — the whole man bound and 
braced up for one purpose, as if devoted to the grand experi- 
ment of ascertaining how much a single human agent can 
effect in the cause of Christ. Here is the union of a number 
of these in a particular church — in which none is inactive 
— each has his post — all act in concert — the whole blent 
into a single power, and putting forth an undivided effort to 
draw the world around them to Christ. Here is the union 
of all these distinct societies in one collective body — bring- 
ing together agencies the most distant — harmonizing mate- 
rials once the most discordant — blending hearts naturally 
7 



74 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

the most selfish in bands more tender than those of kin- 
dred, and so sympathetic that the emotion of one thrills 
through them all — a union which economizes and combines 
all the energies and passions of sanctified humanity — which, 
collecting all the scattered agencies of good that earth con- 
tains, organizes them into a vast engine whose entire power 
is to be brought to bear for the conversion of the world. 
And then, not merely in addition to, but infinitely more than 
all, here is the union of Divine Influence with the whole — 
heaven come down to earth — the powers of the future world 
imparted to the present — the Spirit himself, in a sense, in- 
carnate — pervading his body, the church — investing it with 
nnearthly power — and employing it as the organ of an al- 
mighty influence for recovering the world to Christ. 

Such, then, is an outline of the Scripture theory of that 
agency by which Christ proposes to reclaim the world. Can 
we forbear to admire the simplicity of its principle ? It is 
simply the law of reciprocal influence, baptized in the blood 
of the cross, and endued with the energy of the Holy Spirit. 
All in God that can influence is brought to bear, through 
the cross, on all in man that can be influenced, and the 
whole of that is then put into requisition by the Spirit to 
influence others. If this theory were realized, could we ques- 
tion its efficiency ? Of all who are brought within its scope, 
each of them is prepared to say, " None of us liveth to him- 
self; " — and what but the expansion of that sentiment is 
necessary to fill the world with the influence of the cross ? 
Could we doubt its ultimate and universal triumph? What, 
when the Spirit himself had come down to work the entire 
system ? What, when the church withheld nothing that 
could influence, and the Spirit withheld nothing that could 
crown that influence with success? If even the secret tear 
of an obscure penitent on earth creates a sensation among 
the seraphim, the " travail " of such an agency for the salva- 
tion of the world would carry with it the sympathies of the 
whole universe. God would bless it; and " all the ends of the 
earth would fear him." 



ILLUSTRATED FROM SCRIPTURE. 75 



CHAPTER II. 

THE THEORY OF CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY FOR THE 
CONVERSION OF THE WORLD ILLUSTRATED AND EN- 
FORCED FROM THE WORD OF GOD. 

If it be true that the Christian church is thus constructed 
expressly to imbody and diffuse the influence of the cross — 
and if its full efficiency for this end depends, under God, on 
the entireness of its consecration to this office — we may take 
it for granted that this truth will not only bear to be subjected 
to certain appropriate tests, but that all the results of such an 
examination can only tend to illustrate its importance, and to 
enforce its practical application. 

If the economy of Christian influence be more than a tem- 
porary expedient to meet an emergency — if it form a part of 
an original plan — may we not expect to find, for instance, 
that he who " sees the end from the beginning/' and who so 
often sketches an outline of the future in the events of the 
present or the past, has indicated his purpose in the dispen- 
sations which preceded it? Accordingly, we find that, from 
the moment when the first promise was announced, the in- 
strumentality employed to impart it was calculated to give it 
the widest diffusion and the greatest effect. 

I. During the long lapse of years prior to the flood, this 
instrumentality was domestic, or 'patriarchal. By creating 
one common father of the species, making him the depositary 
of the first communication from heaven, and prolonging his 
life to nearly a thousand years, the Almighty may be regarded 
as making the wisest and most gracious arrangement for the 
welfare of his fallen posterity. For in each and all of the 
myriads to which they had multiplied, Adam would only be- 
hold the multiplications of himself, and would therefore be 
supposed to feel a father's yearning solicitude for their re- 
covery to God. And even as late as " in the days of Noe," 
the comparative recency of the fall, and its immediate results, 
by rendering these results so much the more impressive and 
personally interesting ; the small amount and the simplicity of 
the revelation which had then been made, by rendering it so 
much the easier to be remembered and imparted ; the univer- 



76 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

sal prevalence of the same language, by rendering it so much 
the easier to diffuse that knowledge universally ; and the con- 
tinued longevity of man, by enabling one party to speak with 
the authority and tenderness of a parent, disposing the other 
to listen with the docility and faith of children, and giving to 
each a family interest in the religious welfare of all — afforded 
facilities for diffusing the knowledge of God, which strikingly 
evinced his readiness to save, and loudly called on all to in- 
culcate and exhibit that faith by which Abel i( obtained wit- 
ness that he was righteous," and Enoch " had this testimony, 
that he pleased God." 

II. The patriarchal dispensation, subsequent to the deluge, 
was migratory. By calling, and " preaching the gospel to 
Abraham " * — removing him from province to province 
through a protracted life — investing him with importance 
in the eyes of the nations among whom he sojourned — send- 
ing his posterity into Egypt, and keeping them there for ages 
as a marked and distinct people — leading them out by mira- 
cle — conducting them slowly and circuitously to Canaan as 
an entire " church " — by these means, not only did the Al- 
mighty render the truth migratory, and afford every nation 
which it visited an opportunity of learning it — he may also 
be regarded as intimating the aggressive and missionary char- 
acter of his future church, and the entireness with which it 
should unite and consecrate all its resources to accomplish its 
march through the world. 

III. The Mosaic dispensation was national and stationary. 
Yet, differing as it did in this respect from the preceding, it 
contained every prerequisite for answering its end as a local 
witness for God, and for proving a universal blessing. It was 
first a focus in which all the rays of revelation met, that it 
might next be a centre whence the light of truth should ra- 
diate and pour forth in all directions over the face of the 
earth. Nothing was omitted from its character and constitu- 
tion calculated to promote this gracious design. Its early 
history was a history of miracles, to excite the attention and 
draw to itself the eyes of the wonder-loving world ; its ritual 
was splendid and unique ; its members were distinguished in 
character from those of every other people on the face of the 

* Gal. iii. 8. 



ILLUSTRATED FROM SCRIPTURE. 77 

earth ; its creed or testimony was eminently adapted to the 
existing state of the world, for it proclaimed a God and prom- 
ised a Savior ; its members possessed a deep personal interest 
in the truth of the testimony they gave ; and, what was espe- 
cially important, its geographical position was central.* That 
large portion of the earth, whose waters flow into the Mediter- 
ranean, is the grand historical portion of the world as known 
to the ancients. Judea was situated in the midst of it, like 
the sun in the centre of the solar system. Placed at the top 
of the Mediterranean, it was, during each successive mon- 
archy, always within sight of the nations ; and its temple-fires, 
like the Pharos of the world, were always flinging their warn- 
ing light across the gross darkness of heathenism, protesting 
against idolatry, proclaiming the one living and true God, 
inviting the nations to come and worship before him, and 
foretelling the advent of One whose light should enlighten the 
world. The very site of its temple was prophetic ; placed on 
the summit of Zion, it foretold that " it shall come to pass in 
the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be 
established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted 
above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it." 

And thus, though the Jewish economy was essentially na- 
tional and stationary, yet so far from being exclusive, it was 
studiously adapted to bless the entire race. Its history attested 
an omnipresent providence. Its moral laws were of universal 
obligation. Its sacrifices proclaimed the divine placability, 
and said, " Look unto me, and be ye saved, all ye ends of the 
earth." The name selected and inscribed on his temple, by 
God himself, harmonized with this unlimited invitation of 
mercy : " My house shall be called a house of prayer for all 
people — it shall proclaim that I am now on my throne giving 
audience to the world." And with this gracious design the 
prayers of his worshippers concurred : " Let the people praise 
thee, O God, let all the people praise thee; and let the whole 
earth be filled with his glory." While the spirit of its evan- 
gelical prophecies looked forwards to the sublime spectacle 
of a world in prayer, and sang, " O thou that hearest prayer, 
to thee shall all flesh come." 

To this high and holy office of blessing the world the 
Jewish church was devoted by God, with all the entireness 
of consecration belonging to their own temple — " This peo- 

* Ezek. v. 5. 
«7# 



78 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

pie have I formed for myself; they shall show forth my praise." 
They constituted his chosen representatives to an apostate 
world. And how could they represent his existence and 
spirituality, but by maintaining their own existence entirely 
distinct from the idolatrous nations around, and exhibiting a 
character for excellence incomparably above them ? How 
could they exhibit to mankind an image of the amplitude of 
the divine benevolence, but by becoming the priests and 
intercessors of the revolted world, and by entreating that he 
would hasten the advent of Him in whom all the nations of 
the earth were to be blessed ? As certainly as they failed to 
answer their end, by losing sight of the lofty relative intention 
of their office, so surely, by keeping that gracious intention in 
view, and devoting themselves to the exalted task of answer- 
ing it, would they have become the spiritual benefactors of 
the world. 

The institution of the Christian church, then, the union 
of all its parts, and the consecration of all its powers, for the 
spiritual recovery of the world, is no new thing in the earth. 
The Jewish economy, in which every act of a nation was 
prescribed, from which nothing was excluded as insignificant, 
by which every thing was exalted into religion, and the 
whole combined into a useful instrumentality, was its ancient, 
appropriate, and luminous type. Nor will the Christian 
church answer the sublime purpose of its institution in rela- 
tion to the world, unless it recognizes in the entire consecra- 
tion of the Jewish church a type of its own, and devotes 
itself to the work of blessing mankind with an entireness, 
spirituality, and zeal, as much superior to what was to be 
expected from the Jews, as the character of its redemption 
is superior to the mere temporal deliverance from Egypt. 
Alas ! that we should be so much more ready to recognize in 
their rescue a type of our own, than to discern the intended 
emblem of that relative devotedness which God requires, in 
the perfect consecration of their temple, and the studied 
adaptation of their entire economy to instruct and benefit 
mankind. 

IV. But if even the preliminary dispensation thus clearly 
intimated what would be the lofty and benevolent character 
of the Christian church, may we not much more expect to 
find that character imbodied in the life of its Incarnate 
Founder ? Accordingly, the character of Christ will be found 



ILLUSTRATED FROM SCRIPTURE. 79 

not merely to illustrate his new dispensation, but to form at 
once its type, its origin, and its glory. His church is to be 
simply the expansion of his character. So that were each of 
its members to emulate a Paul in devotedness and zeal, and 
all of them to be united in a body as entire as the person of 
Christ himself, they would be only and inadequately exempli- 
fying the character of their Lord. " For their sakes," said 
he, "I sanctify myself" — I devote myself entirely to the 
work of human redemption. In pursuance of this voluntary 
engagement, he withdrew himself, as we have seen in the pre- 
ceding chapter, from the glories of heaven, and set himself 
apart to the sorrows of earth, and to the sufferings of a 
vicarious death. Though he saw, as from a height, the whole 
array of duty and trial which awaited him, the only emotion 
he evinced at the sight was, a holy impatience to reach the 
cross which stood at the end of his path — a self-consuming 
ardor to be baptized with that baptism of blood. Though all 
the fulness and fire of the passions dwelt in him, never did 
he waste a single feeling, but devoted the whole as conse- 
crated fuel for offering up the great sacrifice in which his life 
was consumed, and by which the world might be saved. And 
why did he this 1 Not merely to impart a benevolent spirit to 
his dispensation, though this is one of its sublime results. 
But as the reason of that benevolent spirit is to be sought 
for in his character, so the reasons of his character are to be 
sought for in a sphere higher than this world, and in a period 
prior to the commencement of time. " To the intent that 
now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places 
might be known, by the church, the manifold wisdom of God, 
according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in 
Christ Jesus our Lord." * The reasons of his mediatorial 
character are to be found in that eternal purpose which ap- 
pointed him to the office of imbodying before the eyes of the 
universe the glory of the divine benevolence in the salvation 
of man. Charged with this exalted office, he came forth and 
stood before the world as the visible representative of the in- 
visible God. " He that hath seen me," said he, " hath seen 
the Father also." " Henceforth ye know the Father, and 
have seen him." (tt I and my Father are one." Possessed 
with the infinite magnitude of the task he had undertaken, 
nothing could for a moment divert his eye from it; every 

* Eph. iii. 10, 11. 



80 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

action and item of his life was referable to this, and subsidi- 
ary to it. As far as consistent with the laws of mediation, 
he was content to conceal himself, to merge his own claims, 
that he might occupy the whole of our field of vision with the 
love of God. He goes even beyond this : " Therefore doth 
my Father love me," saith he, " because I lay down my life 
for the sheep ; " in other words, " My Father loves you with 
a love so unbounded, that he even loves me the more for dying 
to redeem you. He so loves you, that whatever facilitates the 
expression of his love receives an expression of his divine 
esteem : by sustaining your liabilities, by surrendering my life 
as an equivalent for your transgressions, and thus vindicating his 
law from all appearance of connivance at sin, I am setting his 
compassion at liberty ; I am removing a restraint from his 
love which threatened to hold it in eternal suspense ; I am 
enabling his grace to act, to save whom it will ; and for thus 
concurring in his benevolent purpose, and opening an ample 
channel for the tide of his love to flow in, the Father loves 
me ; I receive such additional expressions of his complacency, 
that, though ineffably beloved from eternity, he may be said to 
have had added infinite delight to infinite." Thus unre- 
servedly did the Savior lay himself out even to the death, to 
aggrandize our conceptions of the grace of God. 

And how could it be otherwise ? Reposing, as he had from 
eternity, in the bosom of that infinite love which he had come 
to earth to represent ; mingling, as he had, in its all-compre- 
hending counsels ; knowing, as he did, its infinite treasures 
accumulated from eternity, he knew that no representation, 
within the limits of possibility could adequately impress us 
with its vastness — how, then, could he be satisfied with doing 
less than the uttermost which humanity sustained by divinity 
could effect, in order to express it? A love whose sacrifices 
might be numbered and measured, could not adequately ex- 
press a " love which passeth knowledge;" therefore it was 
that he withheld nothing, but " gave himself for us." Could 
less than the deep " travail of his soul " have represented the 
pulsations and throes of infinite compassion ? Therefore it 
was, that, " being in an agony, he sweat as it were great drops 
of blood falling to the ground"— that he "endured the 
cross, despising the shame." True it is, that, knowing as we 
do the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we may well be filled 
with astonishment at its amazing riches; but equally true is 
it, that, knowing as he did the infinite extent of the love of 



ILLUSTRATED FROM SCRIPTURE. 81 

God which he had engaged to represent, he felt that nothing 
less than such a display of grace could sufficiently express it 
— that even when all the infinite capability of his nature was 
in stress, nothing that he might say or suffer could possibly 
exaggerate our conceptions of the grace of God. 

Now, be it remembered, that, having thus imbodied the love 
of the Father, he has devolved it on his people to multiply 
the copies of his character in their own lives. " As thou 
hast made me thy messenger to the world, I have made them 
my messengers to the world." * They have now to do in- 
strumentally for Christ what he did efficaciously and really 
for the Father ; to represent his benevolence to the world. 
In making them partakers of his grace, he not only intends 
their own salvation, he intends the salvation of others by their 
instrumentality ; he intends that they should go forth from his 
presence as messengers, conveying to the world the cheering 
intelligence, that he is still sitting on his throne of mercy, 
waiting to be gracious ; and that they should spare no effort 
or sacrifice, which may be necessary in order to proclaim 
the fact universally. He says to them, in effect, You have 
given yourselves to me, and I give you to the w r orld — give 
you as my representatives. Look on yourselves as dedicated 
to this office, as I, in another and a higher sense, was ap- 
pointed to represent the gracious character of God. 

Hence, partly, the mighty obligations they are under to 
task their utmost powers for the diffusion of his gospel. For 
'if it was necessary that he should turn all his infinite nature 
into grace — that he should dissolve into a fountain of healing 
mercy, for the recovery of the world, in order to do justice 
;to the love of God, is it less necessary that their natures 
should be turned into tenderness and love, in order to furnish 
the world with an idea of his grace ? A very small portion 
of the ocean might suffice to represent a river ; but will less 
jthan the Amazon suffice to represent the ocean? And are 
'our powers so capacious, our natures so exalted, that less 
than the consecration of the whole should be able to convey 
an idea of his grace ? So vast were his conceptions of the 
love of God, that he attempted not to describe it — he con- 
tented himself with saying, that " God so loved us;" and 
aimed rather to express its indescribable amount in godlike 

* John xvii. 18. Dr. Campbell's translation, only substituting 
"messenger" for "apostle." 



82 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

deeds. And did he fall so far short of the great reality — 
was his representation of it so scant and meagre that we can 
imitate it without sacrifice or effort? It is true, his example 
can never be equalled, for it imbodies infinite goodness ; but 
with so much the greater force does it oblige us in our hum- 
ble measure to attempt the imitation. Having died for the 
good of man, the least he is entitled to expect is, that we 
should live for the same benevolent object. To save the 
world was his vocation, his supreme and single object — so 
that never do we so much resemble him as when we make 
it our business and calling to carry out his gracious design. 
Yes, as far as religion is practical and relative to others, he 
has made benevolence its life and essence ; not merely a part 
of the Christian's character, but the character itself. 

V. The fact that the followers of Christ are appointed to 
be the channels and representatives of his grace to the world, 
supposes that they are called, prepared, and aided by an 
agency from on high. Accordingly, he promised them that 
the loss of his visible presence should be amply compensated 
by the advent of " another Comforter, who should abide with 
them forever." May we not expect, then, that the Scripture 
theory of Christian instrumentality will receive abundant con- 
firmation from the nature of his dispensation, and the doctrine 
of his influence ? Let us seek the answer — where, alone, it 
can be found — in the word of God. 

What, for instance, is the history of his first impartation in 
the Christian church ? No sooner had the Savior ascended 
his mediatorial throne, than the Spirit came down, as he had 
promised, — came like a rushing, mighty wind, filling the 
whole house where the disciples were assembled, filling each 
heart, filling the whole church ; — came with a copiousness 
and power, as if his influences had for ages been pent up and 
under restraint, and now rejoiced in being able to pour them- 
selves out over the church and the world. 

And what was the immediate effect of that event ? Thou- 
sands were instantly converted ; the sword of the Spirit 
seemed newly edged with power ; and, bathed in the light- 
nings of heaven, smote and subdued multitudes at once. 

Was the sphere of his agency to be limited to any par- 
ticular country or province? His field was the world. " He 
shall convince the world of sin." What was the instrumen- 
tality which for this purpose he was to employ ? What, but 



ILLUSTRATED FROM SCRIPTURE. 83 

the instrumentality of those to whom his power was promised, 
and on whom his influence rested ? By whose feet but theirs 
was he to carry the gospel " among all nations " ? By whose 
lips but theirs was he to " convince the world of sin " ? By 
whose hands but theirs was he to wield that weapon of celes- 
tial truth, which, because it is the only weapon he employs, is 
called the very " sword of the Spirit' 5 ? 

Hence some of them he specially selected and appointed to 
particular spheres of labor. Many of them he miraculously 
endowed for the office. All of them found, that wherever 
they went in his name, he " caused them to triumph.' 5 

But if the world was to be converted by their instrumen- 
tality, would he not require and incline them all to tax their 
resources to the utmost, compatible with other incumbent 
claims? He did so. One interest prevailed. One subject 
of emulation swallowed up every other ; — who should ap- 
proach nearest to the likeness of Christ — who should do 
most for the enlargement of his reign. " The whole multi- 
tude of them that believed were of one heart and of one 
mind ; " the spirit of Christ animated the whole community, 
and every particular pulse beat in concert with it. 

What, then, was the eiFect of his agency through the in- 
strumentality of the church ? The gospel went flying abroad 
to the ends of the earth. New territories, for a time, were 
daily added to the domains of the church. Her converts 
were seen flocking to her from all directions, like clouds of 
doves to their windows; and, among the wonders of that 
period, one was to see some of her bitterest persecutors be- 
come her champions and her martyrs. 

And what was the great design of the Spirit in all this ? 

I How remarkable and emphatic the language of Christ in 
reply ! " He shall not speak of himself." " He shall testify 
of me." " He shall glorify me." As the Savior came to 
glorify the Father by the demonstration of his infinite love, 
so the Spirit came to glorify Christ by exhibiting and carry- 
ing that demonstration home, through the church, to the 
heart of the world. But what must be His estimate of the 
work of Christ, that he should thus, in a sense, be content to 
be silent concerning himself, in order that the world might 
resound with nothing but the claims of Christ ; conceal his 
only splendors, that the eye of the world might rest, undis- 
turbed, on Christ alone? And who can compute the enor- 
mous guilt of those by whose instrumentality his infinite pro- 



84 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

pensions to exhibit the glory of Christ might be carried into 
effect, but who give that instrumentality to other objects, and 
thus unutterably " grieve the Holy Spirit of God" ? 

Possibly, however, the promise of the Spirit to convert the 
world, it may be said, was not meant for all time, but only, 
or chiefly, for the first ages of the church. So far from this, 
the gift of the Holy Spirit is the great promise of the Chris- 
tian dispensation : " Ask, and ye shall receive." The law of 
the dispensation on the subject, is this : " Every one that ask- 
eth receiveth" — a law which establishes the certain and 
permanent connection between asking for the influence of 
the Spirit and obtaining it. While the sacred Scriptures, 
public worship, a standing ministry — all the means of grace 
— what are these but the great ordinances of the dispensation, 
appointed as so many channels to receive the living waters of 
prophetic vision, and to convey them into all the world ? And 
the great unfulfilled prophecy of the dispensation is, " I will 
pour out my Spirit upon all flesh." Till this prediction is 
fulfilled, and the world convinced of sin, the promise of the 
Spirit to accomplish the work may be regarded as repeated to 
every believer, through every hour of time. 

Now, as the fitness of the Holy Spirit to be the agent of 
Christ consists in his due appreciation of the claims of Christ, 
and in his perfect sympathy with the design of Christ to save 
the world, so the fitness of the church, as the instrument of 
the Spirit, can only consist in its sympathy with the Spirit in 
converting the world and glorifying Christ. Did Christ trav- 
ail in soul for the redemption of the world ? Then the fitness 
of the Spirit as his representative consists in an infinite travail 
of compassion for the application of that redemption ; and 
never, till " Zion travails " for the same object, can she expect 
to " bring forth." Did Christ devote the entire fulness of his 
nature to the salvation of man I Then the fitness of the 
Spirit to be the steward of all that fulness of grace, consists 
in his readiness to administer the whole to the perishing race ; 
and never till the church is in readiness, by entire devoted- 
ness, to convey it into all the world, is it prepared to do jus- 
tice to the office and agency of the Holy Spirit. Did Christ 
appoint the Christian ministry, and the various means of 
grace, as the channels for conveying his gospel to every crea- 
ture? Then the suitableness of the Spirit to carry out this 
intention must consist in his readiness to replenish these 
channels with heavenly influences, till the earth be filled with 



ILLUSTRATED FROM SCRIPTURE. 85 

the glory of the Lord ; and never till the church has multi- 
plied these channels sufficiently to realize this grand con- 
summation, will it adequately sympathize with the office 
of the Spirit, or satisfy his infinite desire for the glory of 
Christ. 

Hence the importance of each believer individually, and 
of the church collectively, being " filled with the Spirit." So 
lofty is his estimate of the claims of Christ, and so perfect his 
sympathy with him in the great object of the world's recovery, 
that he requires every member, agency, and influence, of the 
entire church to unite to the utmost in enforcing the one 
and realizing the other. The absence of a single means 
which might have been employed, is not only to rob the world 
of that promised influence of the Spirit which might have 
accompanied its presence, — it is to proclaim to the unthink- 
ing world that he is not entirely devoted to the glory of Christ, 
and thus to cast a shade of grievous dishonor on the dispen- 
sation of the Spirit. 

VI. But if the theory of Christian influence contained in 
the preceding chapter be scriptural, we may expect to find 
not only that it is thus in harmony with other truths, and 
deducible from independent doctrines, but that it stands out 
on the inspired page with all the particularity and boldness 
of a distinct command, and all the authority of apostolic 
practice. Nor are we disappointed. 

The mission of Christ from the throne of heaven to the 
altar of the cross, contains in it the spring and principle of 
every other mission from that cross to the ends of the earth. 
By dignifying us with his own love, and allying himself to 
our nature, he proposes every other human being as a mag- 
nificent object of affection to the whole species. By requir- 
ing us to forgive even our enemies, he would have it impressed 
on us that we owe to every man a debt of affection which is 
never discharged. By sending forth the seventy to proclaim 
the kingdom of God through Judea, he taught that the piety 
of his people is to be diffusive, and was training his chtvrch 
for that bolder flight which should eventually sweep the hori- 
zon of the world. In order to enlarge the sphere of Chris- 
tian beneficence to the utmost, he annihilates the ancient 
distinction between neighbor and enemy ; teaches us to regard 
I every man as our neighbor who needs our aid ; to look on 
tDur field as the world. Taking us from that small circle 
8 



86 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

which our selfishness prescribes, he conducts us to a mount 
of vision, from which all the territorial lines and artificial 
distinctions of society are no longer visible, and where the 
living landscape presents us with the view of one vast com- 
munity of immortal beings, claiming the same distinguished 
origin, involved in a common danger, invited to one grand 
deliverance, and passing together into the unseen state. By 
teaching us there to pray, " Thy kingdom come, thy will be 
done on earth, as it is done in heaven," he would open before 
us the prospect of unbounded progression and improvement — 
inspirit us to enter on a career of emulation with angels — to 
despair of nothing, to hope for every thing in the moral 
advancement of the world, and to call in at every step the 
almighty agency of God. By simply commanding us to do 
unto others as we would they should do unto us, he lays a 
principle of relative duty so broad and deep, that, if rightly 
built on, it would sustain a pyramid of benevolent and heroic 
deeds whose top should reach unto heaven ; and by leading 
us to the throne of God, and teaching us to pray that earth 
may be assimilated to heaven, he reminds us that our means 
of doing good are never exhausted, since we are empowered 
at every step to touch and set in motion the almighty agency 
of God. 

But if the glorious object of this prayer is to be realized — 
if the harvest of the world is to be gathered into the garner 
of his church, where are the reapers? " Pray ye, therefore, 
the Lord of the harvest," saith he, " that he would send forth 
more laborers into his harvest." 

But not only will reapers be necessary — so vast is the 
sphere of labor, that agencies of every kind will find scope 
for operation ; and as every follower of Christ can do some- 
thing, not to do it would evince indifference to his claims, 
and would, in moral effect, be ranging themselves against 
him. " He," therefore, saith Christ, " that is not with me 
is against me " — a sentence which at once divides mankind 
into two classes, denouncing the absence of activity in any 
of his professed followers, and ranking it with positive hos- 
tility against him. 

For the same reason, however, that every member of his 
church is to be employed in his service, it follows, of course, 
that every means of influence which each possesses should 
be employed also, and employed to the utmost. Accordingly, 
he not only startles the indolent, by the inquiry, " Why 



ILLUSTRATED FROM SCRIPTURE. 87 

stand ye here all the day idle 1 " and by the command, 
" Work while it is day, for the night cometh wherein no man 
can work ; " but our life in his hands is converted into a 
lamp, which, like the virgins in the parable, we are to keep 
bright and burning ; and into a stewardship, concerning every 
item of which we are to render him finally a faithful account. 
Our " every word," our " pound," our various endowments, 
whatever they may be, are so many talents which he expects 
us to multiply by constant use. He will not require the pos- 
sessor of two talents to account for three, but neither will he 
permit him to account for one only. The very fact that he 
possesses two, constitutes his call and his obligation to employ 
them ; nor is he at liberty to set any limits to his endeavors 
short of those which his means and opportunities prescribe. 
And as Christian influence multiplies itself by use, he is held 
responsible not only for the right employment of his two tal- 
ents, but for the other two, which that employment would 
have added to them. To deny himself for Christ is his daily 
obligation ; but to show him how entirely he is the property 
of Christ, he is required to hold life itself in subordination to 
the Christian cause, and to surrender it to martyrdom when- 
ever the welfare of that cause may require. " He that loseth 
his life for my sake shall find it." 

Having made it imperative on every individual disciple to 
consecrate his entire influence, from the moment of his con- 
version, to the diffusion of the gospel, the Savior made it 
equally binding on them all to unite for the same object. By 
calling them " brethren," he would remind his followers that 
they form a brotherhood. Of all " the sheep which should 
hear his voice," he declared, " there shall be one fold and 
one shepherd." In the exercise of his high prerogative as 
the lawgiver of his church, the only new command which he 
issued to its members was, " that ye love one another." That 
they might have a pattern which should move as well as teach, 
he proposes to them his own example, by adding, " as I have 
loved you, that ye love one another." To bind them together 
still more effectually, he made their affection to each other 
the badge of their discipleship to him : " By this shall all 
men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to 
another." And as if to render the obligation irresistible, he 
lifted up his eyes to heaven, and as in the very presence of 
the cross, entreated "that they all may be one; " adding, as 
the great reason of the whole, " that the world may believe 



88 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

that thou hast sent me." At this practical and ultimate 
design of their unity he had glanced indeed at the commence- 
ment of his public ministry ; describing his people as " the 
salt of the earth/' and " the light of the world." For as, in 
the former capacity, they are to suspend, by their holy and 
combined activity, the tendency of the world to a state of 
general dissolution, so, in the latter, they are placed, to catch 
the radiance of his throne, and to transmit it to a world im- 
mersed in the shadow of death. Not only are they kindled 
in their respective orbits to irradiate the gloom immediately 
around, but as a church they are to unite and constitute 
" the light of the world." And thus, from his opening dis- 
course to his closing prayer, he constantly kept in view the 
combination of his people for the recovery of the world. 

For the same end he predicted and promised the mission 
of the Spirit. So candidly and explicitly had he described 
the trials of their office, that such a promise was necessary, 
if only for their encouragement. Having, therefore, taken 
them to an eminence, and shown them the vast confederacy 
of evil arrayed against them, he reminded them that they 
were to fight in fellowship with all the children of light — 
that more than angels would mingle in their ranks — that the 
Eternal Spirit himself, arming their weakness with his might, 
would advance with them to the work, and convince the 
world of sin. 

And when at length " the hour had come," when the Son 
of man, having been lifted up from the earth, proceeded to 
put into motion the instrumentality which he had arranged 
for drawing all men unto him, as if he had been sitting on 
the circle of the heavens, and surveying all the possibilities 
and events that could occur down to the close of time, he 
answers the objections to this design before they are uttered, 
anticipates wants before they arise, and provides against 
dangers before they threaten. Was it necessary, for instance, 
that he should first legislate on the subject? " Go," said he, 
and he was standing but one step from the throne of heaven, — 
" Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every crea- 
ture." Still, plain as this command might at first appear, the 
duty which it enjoins is so novel, and the project which it 
contemplates so vast, that doubts are likely to arise as to its 
import and obligation ; he repeats it, therefore, again and 
again, - — repeats it in other forms, as an old prediction that 
must be fulfilled, and as a new injunction : " Then opened he 



ILLUSTRATED FROM SCRIPTURE. 89 

their understandings, that they might understand the Scrip- 
ures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it 
behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third 
day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be 
preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jeru- 
salem. And ye are witnesses of these things." If they are 
to enter on their office at once, peculiar and even miraculous 
qualifications are necessary. " Ye shall receive power from 
on high," said he, " after that the Holy Ghost is come upon 
you ; and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem 
and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts 
of the earth." But peculiar dangers will assail them : " All 
power is mine," said he. " Go, and you shall move under the 
shield of Omnipotence." " Lo ! I am with you always, even 
to the end of the world." Thus, making the most compre- 
hensive provision, and taking the whole responsibility of sus- 
cess on himself, his last word to his witnesses was, " Go," — his 
last act was to bless and dismiss them to their work, — and 
the last impression he left on their minds was, that they held 
in trust the conveyance of his gospel to all mankind. 

And, as this was the last indication of his will on earth, we 
know how his first act in heaven corresponded with it. The 
Eternal Spirit himself came down — came expressly to testify 
of Christ — came to be the Great Missionary Spirit of the 
church, to " convince the world of sin." We know how the 
apostles began at Jerusalem, when three thousand souls 
received their testimony. We know how their hesitation to 
quit Jerusalem and Judea was gradually overcome — how a 
Paul was added, like a new missionary element infused into 
their spirit — and we can conceive how they must have felt, 
as if, in the terms of his new commission to be a witness to 
the Gentiles, their own original commission had been renewed 
and reenforced. We know how they were divinely allured 
farther and farther from Jerusalem — how vision after vision 
drew them on to invade the neighboring territories of idolatry 
— and how, at length, when even a Paul evinced a reluctance 
to pass the last limit of Jewish restriction — when even he 
scrupled to leave the confines of Asia, a vision was seen far 
back in the western regions of idolatry — a Macedonian sup- 
pliant — the emblem of Europe — saying, " Come over and 
help us." Bursting that last enclosure, the outermost circle 
of restriction, he was not disobedient to the heavenly vision ; 
8* 



90 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

and the church found itself fully committed to its lofty office 
of traversing the world. 

And now, we might have thought, the Savior has surely 
made it sufficiently apparent that his people are to be his 
messengers to the world. Nothing more can be necessary to 
show that this great object enters into the very design and 
principle of his church. But not so thought the Savior him- 
self. Once more does he come forth and reiterate the truth. 
When we might have supposed that his voice would be heard 
no more — once again does he come forth, and break the 
silence of the church ; and the subject on which he speaks 
is the missionary character of that church. Not that it had 
lost sight of its office. His servants were carrying their tes- 
timony in all directions. But, as if the angel having the ever- 
lasting gospel did not yet speed on his way fast enough to 
satisfy the yearnings of infinite compassion, or as if he feared 
that angel would stop ere the whole earth, the last creature, 
had heard the gospel testimony — he came forth personally, and 
announced, " The Spirit and the bride say, Come ; and let hirn 
that heareth say, Come ; and let him that is athirst come ; 
and whosoever will, let him come and take of the water of 
life freely.' 5 

Here is the summing up of all his arrangements and com- 
mands for the diffusion of the gospel. Having opened the 
fountain of eternal life in the midst of the desert world — 
the Spirit — the church — every member of that church — 
every power of every member, even if he can only utter the 
exclamation, Come, are all to be combined and devoted to 
the grand object of inviting the perishing world to partake. 
Every one that hears the call is to transmit it farther still — 
there is no point at which it may stop — a chain of living 
voices is to be carried round the globe in every direction, till 
the earth grows vocal with the sound of the church inviting 
men to Christ. 

Thus, if the last act of Christ on earth was to make the 
world the heirs of his grace, his first act in heaven proclaimed 
that he required all the benevolent agency of his church to 
be put into full activity, in order to do justice to the purposes 
of his love ; and as this is his last recorded command, the 
postscript of the Bible, he would have it impressed on the 
mind of the universal church, in every age, with all the fresh- 
ness and force of a parting injunction. 



ILLUSTRATED FROM SCRIPTURE. 91 

VII. If the preceding exposition of the will of Christ con- 
cerning the missionary character of his church be correct, we 
may expect to find a further illustration of that will in re- 
corded sentiments and " acts of the apostles" and "primitive 
churches." 

Let us look at the great missionary of the Christian church 
— the apostle of the Gentiles. It is admitted, indeed, that he 
had been specially designated to the office ; but, by this cir- 
cumstance, he is so far from ceasing to be an example, that 
the head of the church may be regarded as saying, " For this 
purpose, partly, have I called and employed him, and placed 
his history on record, that my people may possess in him a 
model of the missionary character for all succeeding times." 
It is admitted, also, that Christians generally, and even Chris- 
tian ministers, are not called to the literal imitation of his 
missionary career. At the same time, it is meant that they 
should more than admire it — that they should imbibe and 
imitate its entire spirit. The same principle of loyalty to 
Christ and love to man they must possess : and from that 
same principle must they rise superior to selfish indulgence, 
and be able to appeal to their self-sacrificing piety that for 
them "to live is Christ/ 5 

The apostle could do this ; and it was the sole secret of 
his heroic devotedness and missionary enterprise. In the 
ear of the selfish and the worldly, the language doubtless 
sounds extravagant and absurd. In the ear of God, and 
indeed of every enlightened being, it is only the language 
of sobriety and wisdom. It was dictated by no mere mo- 
mentary impulse of zeal, but was the result of a sober 
calculation frequently repeated, and of enlightened principle 
gradually matured. There w T as a time when, in common 
with the world, he regarded life as superlatively valuable ; 
but he now looked on it as comparatively insignificant, for 
he had found an object of unspeakably greater importance. 
Others might copy the example of their fellow-men, but he 
had risen to the high and holy ambition of copying the ex- 
ample of incarnate perfection, of God manifest in the flesh. 
Others might waste their precious time in ease, and sloth, 
and worldly indulgence ; but he aspired to enter into the 
counsels of Heaven, to become a co-worker together with 
God, and instrumental!)' to mingle in the operations of 
almighty love in renewing and blessing a world of apostate 
but immortal beings. Others might content themselves with 



92 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

the praise of men, with the good opinion of creatures per- 
ishing like themselves ; but he aspired to the high distinction 
of pleasing God — of being received and welcomed into 
the presence of the Supreme, with the sentence, " Well 
done, good and faithful servant." Others might be satisfied 
with their own personal salvation — but feeling that he had 
a Savior for the world, he panted to go every where, claim- 
ing that world for Christ — panted to " present every man 
perfect in Christ Jesus' 7 — "travailed in birth" for the 
regeneration of the human race. 

Hence the secret of his self-denial — "I am made all things 
to all men, if by any means I might save some." Hence, 
too, the spring of his Christian zeal — "If by any means I 
may provoke to emulation them who are my flesh, and might 
save some of them." This was the reason of his prudence 
and vigilance — "I please all men in all things, not seeking 
mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be 
saved." And hence, too, his joy in suffering — "It is for 
your consolation and salvation." This was the object at 
which he aimed, and which filled the whole sphere of his 
vision ; comparatively speaking, he saw nothing else. Ease 
might offer him indulgence; Wealth might display her 
bribes ; Pleasure might exhibit her charms ; but these had 
lost their power to tempt ; to him they had become objects 
of supreme indifference. Persecution might bring out and 
spread in his path a fearful array of scourges, and chains, 
and axes — all the instruments and apparatus of torture and 
death. But he looked at the cross, and, beholding the Son 
of God suspended there, he armed himself "likewise with 
the same mind." He looked around ; and he saw the 
assembled church of Christ urging him, for the glory of the 
cross, for the sake of perishing humanity, to go forwards. 
He listened, and heard the whole creation groaning to be 
delivered. He looked above ; and he saw " a great cloud of 
witnesses " bending with intense interest from their blessed 
seats ; and beyond and above them all, he saw the throne of 
the Lamb and him that sat on it — and in his hand a glorious 
crown of life — and he saw that it was extended towards 
him ; and thus sustained, he could point to all the instru- 
ments of torture, and exclaim, " None of these things move 
me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might 
finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have 
received of the Lord Jesus to testify of the gospel of the 



ILLUSTRATED FROM SCRIPTURE. 93 

grace of God." And thus impelled, again and again he led 
the van of the army of the cross, stormed the very strong- 
holds of idolatry and sin, proclaimed the name of his sov- 
ereign Lord " where Satan's seat" was, planted the standard 
of the cross in the very citadel of the foe, till his progress 
from place to place was to be traced, not indeed by blood — 
or if so, by no blood but his own — for he was covered with 
the scars of the Christian conflict — but with the fall of idol 
temples, the plantation of Christian churches, the trophies 
of ransomed human souls, and with the song of the Christian 
warrior, exulting, "Now thanks be unto God, who always 
causeth us to triumph in every place." And yet, in all this 
heroic devotedness and self-consuming zeal, was he exceed- 
ing his obligations — doing any thing more than carrying 
out principles to their legitimate application — living to 
Christ? Did he ever utter a word which implied that he 
considered himself an exception to what others should be? 
that no one was bound to be so zealous for Christ as he was 
- — that a lower standard of benevolence was sufficient for 
them ? On the contrary, how humbly did he account him- 
self less than the least of all saints, how uniformly did he 
speak of himself only as one of a number constrained and 
borne onwards by the love of Christ, and how earnestly did 
he say to all, " Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of 
Christ." 

VIII. Now, if such be an exemplification of what, in 
spirit and principle at least, each individual convert should 
be, let us next glance at the illustration of that missionary 
spirit and principle as exhibited in the conduct of a primitive 
church. The church at Jerusalem was denominational, con- 
sisting exclusively of converted Jews. The church at An- 
tioch, including as it did all believers, irrespective of their 
nation, was the first Catholic Christian church — "Now 
there were in the church that was at Antioch certain 
prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was 
called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, who had 
been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. As they 
ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, 
Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I 
have called them."* Deeply impressed with their individual 

* Acts xiii. 1, 2. 



94 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

responsibility, different members of the Antiochian church 
had already made certain unconnected efforts for the diffu- 
sion of the gospel. Grateful in the last degree for their 
own salvation, and encouraged by the conversion of the 
Roman Cornelius, they could not but speak of the things 
which they had seen and heard — " And the hand of the 
Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned 
to the Lord." * 

But the time had now arrived when they were to attempt 
a united and systematic effort for the same object. It was 
not likely that such piety, wisdom, and zeal, could long com- 
mune together without making a combined movement. One, 
we may suppose, would insist gu the evident design of a 
Christian church to extend the gospel ; another, on the au- 
thoritative will of Christ ; a third, on the depraved condition 
of the heathen; and a fourth, on the instances in which they 
themselves had seen the gospel prove " the power of God 
unto salvation ; " while all would acknowledge the impor- 
tance of a more direct, vigorous, and sustained effort than 
had yet been made for enlarging the kingdom of Christ. 
" But who is sufficient for these things? " Agents must be 
selected — a sphere of labor appointed them — and their 
hands sustained by the prayers, and, if need be, by the con- 
tributions, of the disciples remaining at home — for this is to 
be a mission of the church. Conscious of their own incom- 
petence, and anxious to take no step which God has not 
encouraged, they wait together before him by prayer and 
fasting. 

" And as they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the 
Holy Ghost said, Separate unto me Barnabas and Saul for 
the work whereunto I have called them." Here we see 
the church whose members had been the most zealous, 
individually, for the extension of the faith, honored to be 
the first missionary society for the conversion of the heathen. 
While from the divine designation of the two most distin- 
guished members and ministers of that church to be the first 
missionaries, we learn, that Christians will never evince that 
they estimate the missionary office as God does, till they 
select for it the choicest instrumentality which the churches 
contain. 

" And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their 

* Acts xl 21. 



ILLUSTRATED FROM SCRIPTURE. 95 

hands on them, they sent them away." Directed, probably, 
to their particular scene of labor, by the same divine author- 
ity which had nominated them to the work, Barnabas and 
Paul proceeded to Seleucia, the nearest port, and sailed at 
once to the isle of Cyprus. Paul had already gratified the 
instinctive longing of the young convert, to benefit those firs 
to whom he is most nearly related, by preaching the gospel 
in his native Cilicia. And now Barnabas enjoys the same 
sacred gratification, by preaching salvation in his native 
Cyprus. Thus it is that the gospel recognizes all the nat- 
ural and social relations of life, and teaches us that in seek- 
ing to evangelize a distant region, we are not to overlook 
Si prior claims of our family, neighborhood, and native 

^Crossing to Peninsular Asia, Paul and Barnabas prose- 
cuted their mission by traversing Pamphyl», Piajdia ^d 

Lycaonia, till they touched on the borders of Ci hcia, where 
Paul had already published the gospel. In this way, the 
whole of the intermediate country between their two native 
places, resounded with the preaching of Christ crucified In 
establishing this chain of Christian posts from point to point, 
they proposed to make it the base of a future mission into 
the region beyond. And here we find the apostle, on a sub- 
sequent occasion, enlarging the , sphere of his labor bj .preach- 
ing in the remoter regions of Phrygia, Galatia, and Mysia. 
An apt illustration, this, of the expansive power of lie gos- 
pel • of the manner in which it enlarges the circle of its 
beneficent operation ; and in which the Christian church 
should fever be meditating further conquests for Christ, and 
nrenaring for the final occupation of the entire globe. 
13 touched the boundary of Cilicia, Paul and Bar- 
nabas ret aced their steps, revisited the churches which they 
ha planted, and then « returned to Antioch from whence 
thev had been recommended to the grace of God for the 
work which they fulfilled. And when they were come, and 
had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all that 
God had done with them, and how he had opened the door 
of faith unto the Gentiles." * Regarding themselves as the 
representatives of the church which had sent them forth, and 
stdl retaining their communion with it, they take ,t for 
granted that all its members will feel the liveliest interest in 

* Acts xiv. 26, 27. 



96 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

the results of their mission. In the same way should every 
thing connected with the progress of the gospel in heathen 
lands now thrill through the heart of the church at home, 
and be regarded as a subject of deep personal interest by 
each of its members. 

The church at Antioch was now surrounded, as far as its 
position would permit, with the wide field of its missionary 
operations. In whatever direction it might look, it had the 
hallowed satisfaction of beholding the fruits of its labor stretch 
away to a remote circumference — an image of the manner 
in which every particular church, and in which the whole 
collective church of Christ, should sit in the centre of a 
widely-extended missionary domain, filled to the verge with 
the influence of the cross, and thus prepared to enlarge and 
extend its circle till it embraces the world. 

For what is there in all this piety and zeal which is not 
equally obligatory on the churches of the present day ? What 
had the Lord of the church done for the Christians at An- 
tioch, which he has not equalled, and, in some providential 
respects, even exceeded, for us ? " Compassion moved them ; " 
but is heathenism less depraving, or sin less destructive, or 
hell less fearful, now, than then ? " Zeal for the glory of 
Christ incited them ; " but are we less indebted to redeeming 
love than they 1 We do not hope for less than eternal life, and 
did they expect more ? " The Spirit of God impelled and 
directed them ; " but it was in answer to earnest, united, and 
persevering prayer — and is the throne of grace less accessi- 
ble to us than it was to them ? or the promise which encour- 
aged them to repair to it repealed? — "Ask, and ye shall 
receive." And is not the same Spirit saying to every church, 
by the voice of Scripture, and the movements of Providence, 
as distinctly as to the church at Antioch, " Separate unto 
me your Paul and your Barnabas. Select your holiest, 
ablest men ; cultivate their mind and piety to the utmost ; 
and set them apart to the missionary office " ? "A Paul and 
a Barnabas were among them, and if we could command such 
agents — if we could select even an Eliot or a Swartz — we 
would strain every effort to send them forth ; but there are 
few, or none, such among us." Yes, there are; or, if not, 
there might be. " Who, then, is Paul, and who is Apollos, 
but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to 
every man ? " By the grace of God they were what they 
were ; and, by the same grace, their distinguished excellences 



ILLUSTRATED FROM SCRIPTURE. 97 

can be reproduced and repeated in every church. Only let 
not Christians expect their agents to be apostles, in order 
that they themselves may sit at home in indolence — only let 
them expect that their agents will be their representatives, 
and nothing more — only let them look for a Barnabas in a 
church worthy of a Barnabas, and look for him by earnest 
and united prayer to God, — and they will find the Spirit of 
God raising up an agency as suitable for the present day as 
that of Paul and Barnabas for apostolic days. 

IX. If we now proceed to examine the inspired epistles 
to the churches, we shall find that, as the missionary character 
of the Apostle Paul is only an exemplification of what, in 
spirit and principle, every other Christian should be, so the 
missionary conduct of the church at Antioch is only a model 
for all other Christian churches. 

The churches at Ephesus and Colosse are exhorted to be 
fervent, incessant, and united, in prayer for the wide and 
successful propagation of the gospel. For well the apostle 
knew that the zeal for Christ, which led them to become 
suppliants for that object at the throne of grace, would lead 
them, while there, to inquire, " Lord, what wilt thou have us 
to do?" — that, so far from there expiring, it would there 
rather be fanned and fed, and rise into a flame, into which 
property, influence, life itself, if necessary, would be offered 
up as an oblation to his glory. 

The Philippian Christians were to shine as lights, exalted 
to irradiate the surrounding gloom, " holding out the word 
of life." 

To the Christians at Galatia, the apostolic injunction is, 
" As ye have opportunity, do good unto all men ; " language 
which laid under tribute every moment of their time, and 
every energy of their renewed nature, for the good of the 
world. 

In his Epistle to the Romans, the calling and conversion 
of the heathen world is a subject of constant recurrence. 
" But how shall they call on him in whom they have not 
believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they 
have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? 
and how shall they preach except they be sent ? " * Leaving 
it to be inferred, that if the proclamation of the gospel be 

* Rom. 
9 



98 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

necessary to the salvation of the world, the greater the num 
ber of heralds employed, the greater the number of conver- 
sions which, by the agency of the Spirit, would ensue ; and 
consequently, the greater the obligation of every Christian 
community to pray the Lord of the church to raise up and 
send forth from among them the greatest number of mission- 
aries which their resources can supply. 

The members of the church at Thessalonica " became 
ensamples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia ; for 
from them sounded out the word of the Lord." * Not only 
was the report of their conversion circulated by others 
through all the neighboring districts, but they themselves 
followed that report with as loud a call to those regions as 
they could raise, to " turn to God from dumb idols, to serve 
the living and true God." 

While to the church at Corinth the apostle writes, " We 
are come as far as to you also in preaching the gospel 
of Christ, * »_ * having hope, when your faith is in- 
creased, that we shall be enlarged by you * * * abun- 
dantly, to preach the gospel in the regions beyond you." f 
Already had he hastened from province to province, " weep- 
ing over the wreck of immortal souls," and leaving behind 
him, wherever he had been, monuments of the power of the 
gospel to save. But, much as he rejoiced in this, the vast 
circuit which he had already filled with the sound of salva- 
tion could not limit his desires or his labors. There were 
" regions beyond;" regions which were still immersed in 
the shadow of death ; and the weight of their misery rested 
on his soul. If he reposed a moment, therefore, it was only 
to gather strength for his onward course. If he remained a 
short time with a church already formed, it was only that 
their flame might supply him with the means of kindling 
another light in the distance. If he rejoiced in his success 
at Corinth, it was chiefly as it enabled him abundantly to 
enlarge the sphere of his labors in " the regions beyond." 
He takes it for granted that the members of a church have 
" a claim to the exclusive enjoyment of the Christian min- 
istry only until they have reached a certain maturity in reli- 
gious" attainments; but that, from that moment, they are 

* 1 Thess. i. 7, 8. 

t 2 Cor. x. 14 — 16. See an excellent discourse on this text in the 
Works of the Rev. Richard Watson, vol. iii. 



ILLUSTRATED FROM SCRIPTURE. 99 

equally bound with himself to extend the knowledge of Christ 
into " the regions beyond.' 5 All their resources are to be 
taxed for the enlargement of his kingdom. Circle beyond 
circle of benevolent effort is to be described by the Christian 
church, till the earth is encompassed in the vast embrace of 
mercy. 

And has the missionary enterprise diminished, by the 
lapse of time, either in its obligation on the church, or in its 
magnificence ? St. Paul is still exhorting, " that supplica- 
tions, prayers, and intercessions be made for all men ; " and 
declaring, that " this is good and acceptable in the sight of 
God our Savior, who will have all men to be saved, and to 
come to the knowledge of the truth." * St. James is still 
announcing to the church, " Let him know, that he who con- 
verteth the sinner from the error of his way," — let him pon- 
der the mighty truth — let him publish it through the church 
as a proclamation from the throne of God to inflame the zeal 
of others — " Let him know, that he shall save a soul from 
death." t What an inducement to the united church to 
attempt the stupendous object of saving a world from death ! 
The apostle Peter is still affirming that the existence of the 
world continues, because God is " long-suffering to us-ward, 
not willing that any should perish, but that all should come 
to repentance." J And St. John is testifying that " the 
Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world ; " § and 
leaving us to draw the startling inference, that if " he who 
seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of 
compassion from him, is a murderer," the Christian church 
can wash its hands from the crimson guilt of murdering the 
souls of the heathen only by making the mightiest effort of 
which it is capable for their salvation. 

X. But if it be true that this theory was prefigured by 
former dispensations ; that it was substantially realized in the 
person of Christ ; that it is called for by the office and agency 
of the Holy Spirit ; that our Lord prescribed it ; and that his 
primitive churches either practically exemplified it, or were 
authoritatively exhorted to do so, might we not venture to sug- 
gest that most probably a scheme so wide in its sweep is even 
more comprehensive still ? Knowing, as we do, that God acts 

* 1 Tim. ii. 1, 3, 4. t 2 Pet. iii. 9. 

t James v. 20. § 1 John iv. 14. 



100 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

by general laws — laws which include in their range worlds 
as well as atoms, and systems as well as worlds — may we 
not suggest that a principle which unites and lays under 
tribute all the sanctified influences of earth, adds to them 
also the influences of heaven ? Revelation decides that this 
is the fact ; that as there is but one object in the universe at 
which to aim, so there is but one plan on which it is pursued, 
and one being by whom it is conducted, the Lord Jesus Christ. 
From the moment — if we may be allowed to employ the 
language of time in speaking of things which acknowledge no 
date — from the moment when the Eternal Father determined 
to create, and to exhibit his glory and impart his fulness to 
his intelligent creation, a scheme of mediation became indis- 
pensable. The Son of God, as the only adequate representa- 
tive of his person, and medium of his fulness, became indis- 
pensable to that mediatorial scheme. And from the moment 
he began to fulfil its conditions, and realize its designs, he 
became, by right and by appointment, the centre of the 
whole. " For by him were all things created, that are in 
heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether 
they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers : 
all things were created by him, and for him : and he is before 
all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head 
of the body, the church ; who is the beginning, the first-born 
from the dead ; that in all things he might have the preemi- 
nence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all ful- 
ness dwell : and having made peace through the blood of his 
cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I 
say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven." 
And from that moment he acquired the right and the power 
to lay all the agencies and influences of this vast system 
of existences, economies, and constitutions, as it revolved 
around him, under tribute, in order to maintain the union, 
dependency, and order of all its parts to each other, and 
of the whole to himself. To withhold this tribute in the 
least degree is to derange the entire plan. Should such 
derangement occur even in the remotest part of the system, 
every other part and being belonging to it would sympathize 
with the shock, and feel himself personally aggrieved. 
Should it be announced, as the supreme will, that the offend- 
ing party be reclaimed and saved, every order of being, every 
rank, each individual, would feel himself bound to task his 
energies to the utmost, as far as they could be made available, 



ILLUSTRATED FROM SCRIPTURE. 101 

and to combine them with all the rest, in a grand endeavor to 
reclaim and restore the offender to the place and the happi- 
ness which he had lost. Even if some of those orders, owing 
to the difference of their nature, should not be able to minis- 
ter directly to his recovery, they would take the liveliest in- 
terest in every stage of the process, and never rest till it was 
brought to a happy conclusion ; while every being of his own 
order would feel himself bound, by the particular obligation 
of kindred, as well as by the general obligation of loyalty to 
Christ, to unite in an untiring endeavor for his recovery. 

Now, who does not recognize in this representation a sketch 
of what has actually taken place ? Not an individual merely, 
but an entire race, has broken the law which bound it up with 
all the orders in the mediatorial government of Christ. The 
integrity of the universe, as a union of different intelligent 
orders under one head, is destroyed. But by virtue of an 
eternal purpose, that integrity is to be restored ; they are 
again to be "gathered together in one." The disclosure of 
this sublime " purpose which God had purposed in himself,'' 
stirred the entire universe of holy beings ; and for its execu- 
tion every agency it contains is not only put into motion, but 
into actual requisition. The whole, animated and united by 
this one design, move towards the scene of revolt. The Me- 
diator himself descends into the midst, carrying with him the 
intensest sympathies, if not also the actual presence, of all 
the beings who retain their first estate. For one of them to 
have withheld his sympathy, or to have evinced that less than 
his entire nature was interested, and held ready for the occa- 
sion, would have been to inflict the shock of a new revolt, if 
not even to create a pause in the onward movement of mercy. 
But " he was seen of angels." In the whole of his progress 
from the throne to the cross, they may be said to have formed 
one unbroken and undeviating procession. He advanced to 
Calvary with all the lovers of mercy, the friends of man, the 
servants of God, in his train. In the sacrifice which he there 
presented, they beheld the means of mediation made visible 
to the universe, and complete for eternity. There they saw 
the doctrine, of which they had ever been enjoying the 
advantage, and the fact, or means, of which it had never 
entered into their minds to conceive, meet and become one. 
In its aspect toward God, as a fact, they saw mercy answer- 
ing the claims of justice with an infinite compensation ; and 
in its aspect towards man, as a doctrine, they saw both unite 
9* 



102 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

in appealing to the heart of the world, and establishing an 
infinite claim on its grateful and instant return. 

They themselves, indeed, are personally benefited in a 
great variety of ways by the advent and death of Christ. 
" To the principalities and powers in heavenly places are 
made known by [means of] the church the manifold wisdom 
of God." But on account of its remedial aspect on man it 
is that they chiefly prize it. They know that the race among 
whom the altar of atonement is erected, is the race whom it 
chiefly concerns ; and their perfect sympathy with its gracious 
intention makes them conscious of a holy impatience to see 
that intention fully realized. Reasons, indeed, sufficient to 
prevent their repining, forbid them from presenting them- 
selves visibly in the church, or carrying the gospel audibly to 
the world ; but not the less ardently do they burn to see this 
done by those on whom it devolves. Does not the first tear 
of the penitent create a sensation of joy through all their 
adoring ranks ? As if to show the identity of their interests 
and ours, was not an angel employed to dictate that last 
portion of Scripture which discloses the vicissitudes of the 
church to the end of time ? * Have they not been heard 
rehearsing for the day when they will have to lead the anthem 
of the blessed, and celebrate the triumph of the mediatorial 
scheme in our recovery? In fine, " are they not all minister- 
ing spirits sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs 
of salvation?" and when the success of the gospel provokes 
the hostility of the world, is it not theirs to sound the trum- 
pets and to discharge the vials of judgment ? and are not all 
their ministers combined, as far as compatible with the laws 
of their economy, for advancing the progress of the gospel ? t 
and would they not denounce the highest intelligences among 
them, who should withhold a single ministration which was 
due to this object, as a traitor to the cause of mercy ? And 
if it is ever permitted them to offer a petition, must it not be 
one which prays, " Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on 
earth as it is in heaven " ? — one which shows they are travail- 
ing in birth for the conversion of the world, and panting to 
see the church on earth as devoted to its office as the church 
in heaven, and both cooperating together for this great con- 
summation ? 

Had it been permitted to angels to occupy the place of 

* Rev. xxii. 16. t Acts v. 20. Rev. xiv. 16. 



ILLUSTRATED FROM SCRIPTURE. 103 

man in the administration of the gospel, would whole regions 
have been now sitting in darkness and in the shadow of 
death ? would not each of them have resembled him who was 
seen in vision flying with the everlasting gospel through 
the midst of heaven ? Or, were they now to be permitted by 
God, and authorized by the church, to prescribe its duties 
and to dispose of its resources, would not a revolution be 
speedily effected in its state which would say to numbers who 
are now slumbering at home, " Go, stand, and speak unto the 
people [in the distant temples of idolatry] all the words of 
this life ; " and which would put them in possession of the 
means of going ? Or, were it permitted them even to address 
us on the subject, what could the import of their language 
be, but an urgent exhortation to diffuse the knowledge of that 
mediation by which they and we are made one ? " Brethren 
in Christ," they would say — for in him "the whole family in 
heaven and earth is named " — "you have been brought back 
into order and harmony with the universe ; how can you live 
for any other object than that of aiming to add others to your 
number? When we saw you restored to the circle from 
which you had been lost, we exulted in the event; for not 
only did we behold you, by anticipation, occupying your ap- 
pointed place in heaven, — we saw your appointed place in the 
church on earth ; saw that you were called to occupy it as 
agents for Christ, and knew the happy consequences which 
would ensue from your required devotedness to its duties. 
Not more certainly is the throne of every believer prepared 
in heaven, than his appropriate place is prescribed on earth. 
In the system to which you now belong, every being, from 
the loftiest archangel to the lowliest saint, has his course 
assigned, and every holy act its appointed effect. You ' have 
come to an innumerable company of angels.' But the only 
object in which you and we can practically sympathize and 
unite is in the enlargement of the kingdom of Christ, and 
the celebration of his glory. In every thing which relates to 
this, so truly are we one, that never can you put forth the 
least effort for its furtherance, but the act thrills through all 
our principalities and powers, and carries with it all our sym- 
pathies. So distinctly do we see the design of Christ in call- 
ing you to occupy a place among the agents of his media- 
tion ; so evident is the adaptation of his church to collect all 
such agencies as they arise, and to combine them with those 
already in operation ; and so evident the certainty with which 



104 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

the whole is calculated instrumentally to repair the effects of 
sin and restore the harmony of the universe, that we beseech 
you, by the new fellowship to which you are admitted, and by 
our gathering together in him, that you do the will of God on 
earth as unitedly and devoutly as we your co-workers are doing 
it in heaven. From the higher ground we occupy, we can 
survey the fearful consequences of your neglect in all their 
aspects, bearings, and dimensions — the glory lost to God, the 
happiness lost to yourselves and to us, and the immortal 
spirits which you are allowing to pass into misery in un- 
broken procession, unwarned and unsaved, — consequences so 
fearful, that, were the exchange permitted, gladly would we 
resign our heavenly places to you, that we might discharge 
your trust, wield your influence, and win the honors which 
are offered to you in drawing men to Christ. So eager are 
we to behold the completion of the mediatorial scheme, as it 
relates to the recovery of man — to gaze on the only Begot- 
ten of the Father on the throne of the universe, encircled by 
the thrones and dominions, principalities and powers, of 
heaven, and by the number which no one can number save 
from the earth — all radiant with his glory, living in his 
smiles, and joined in his praise — and so fully are we pos- 
sessed with the conviction that the entire consecration and 
union of all your sanctified instrumentality are essential to 
bring it to pass, that we adjure you, by the glory which shall 
then be revealed, that you ' henceforth live, not unto your- 
selves, but unto him who died for you and rose again.' All 
in heaven is ready for the great consummation, — each angel, 
as an agent of Providence, is at his post — each vial of judg- 
ment waits to be discharged on your foes. He in whom we 
both are one is on his throne, ' from henceforth expecting ' 
the glorious issue. What other mediatorial wonders may 
await the disclosures of eternity we know not ; but as if the 
restoration of man were only the first in a series of wonders 
— as if infinite plans were held in abeyance — the happiness 
of unknown worlds were kept in suspense till this be com- 
plete, unite all your influence in a great endeavor to make 
good our announcement at the advent of Christ, ' Glory to 
God in the highest, on earth peace and good-will towards 
man.' " 

Now this, in effect, is the language in which the hierarchy 
of heaven may be regarded as perpetually stimulating the 
apathy, and urging the efforts, of the redeemed on earth 



ILLUSTRATED FROM SCRIPTURE. 105 

To the eye of faith they stand revealed, and are ever present, 
as a great cloud of witnesses. Never are they absent from 
our midst, either actually mingling their agencies with ours, 
or through the medium of our faith shedding a practical influ- 
ence on our conduct ; and thus, in the mediatorial economy, 
all the sanctified influences of heaven and earth are combined 
in the prosecution of its saving design. The chain of rela- 
tionship arid mutual influence passes not only from hand to 
hand through the church militant, but through " all the family 
in heaven and earth," holding the entire community in union 
for the good of the world. 

XL But, farther, this economy not only unites all the 
diversified influences which it includes into one agency, — it 
also combines all their accumulations from age to age, and 
seeks to devolve the whole entire on each successive genera- 
tion in the church ; so that we of the present day are living 
under the collected influences of all the past, and moving 
under an impulsive power greater than that of any preceding 
age. 

The analogy of this truth indeed runs though all nature ; * 
and the moral influence of national history furnishes perhaps 
its best illustration. A people rich in the wealth of ancestral 
worth possess strong incentives perpetually urging them to 
noble deeds. To this cause much of Roman greatness is 
ascribed. " The Roman citizens adorned the vestibules of 
their dwellings with the images of their ancestors ; so that 
the faces of the patriot, the warrior, and the philosopher, were 
ever present, to remind them of their exploits, and to stimu- 
late them to imitation. The design was crowned with suc- 
cess. The virtue of one generation was transferred by the 
magic of example into several ; and heroism was propagated 
through the commonwealth." " Among no other nation," 
says Schlegel, in his Philosophy of History, " did historical 
recollections even of the remotest antiquity exert such a pow- 
erful influence on life, or strike so deep a root in the minds 
of men." But, surely, (if it be allowed to bring sacred his- 
tory into the comparison,) the Jewish nation must be regarded 
as forming a grand exception. According to apostolic author- 
ity, the " advantage of the Jew was much every way, but, 
chiefly, that unto them were committed the oracles of God." 

* See Bishop Butler's Analogy, Pt. ii. chap. 4. 



106 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

That which distinguished them far above all the nations of 
the earth was, that, from the time of their settlement in Judea, 
they lived and moved under the direct influence of their 
miraculous history — while one design of the temple appears 
to have been, that, by making it the shrine of their most 
ancient and sacred relics, and the visible abode of religion, 
that influence might constantly act on them with ever-aug- 
mented force. If it be true that the man is little to be envied 
who could walk " indifferent and unmoved over any ground 
which has been dignified by wisdom, bravery, and virtue — 
whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of 
Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer among the 
ruins of Ionia — that to abstract the mind from local emotion 
would be impossible if it were endeavored, and would be 
foolish if it were possible/' how deep and lasting the impres- 
sion calculated to be produced on a people who had to walk 
daily amidst the solemn and gorgeous magnificence of an 
ancient economy adjusted and adorned by the immediate 
hand of Deity ! As if inhabiting the sacred enclosure of 
the temple itself, they were addressed perpetually by solemn 
voices from the past, and called on from every side by influ- 
ences accumulated from the creation of the world. So deep 
was the effect produced on them — though, alas ! a perverted 
one — that ages on ages of suffering have not been able to 
efface, nor hardly to impair it. 

Now, all the wealth of moral influence which belonged to 
that dispensation has been poured into the treasury of the 
Christian church. We " have come unto Mount Sion." It 
is not lost, but transferred, accumulated, and put into wide 
circulation. True, the temple is gone — its most sacred 
things have disappeared — the economy itself is abolished — 
the very nation scattered to the winds of heaven — but all its 
proper and mighty influence still exists. Nothing that be- 
longed to it existed for itself. Every judgment that made it 
awful looked on beyond its own time, and is frowning still. 
" All these things happened unto them for ensamples ; and 
they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of 
the world are come." Each of its prophets spoke less for 
his own time than for ours ; so that for us he is prophesying 
still — " Not unto themselves but unto us they did minister 
the things which are now reported unto you by them that 
have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent 
down from heaven ; which things the angels desire to look 



ILLUSTRATED FROM SCRIPTURE. 107 

into." Every event which distinguished it is still in actual 
operation, diffusing the elements of other events, and propa- 
gating its influence somewhere. And where shall we look 
for that influence, but within the limits of the Christian 
church ? The Bible is the true conductor of all the holy 
influences the world has contained since the dawn of creation. 
From it the Jewish church received, in a concentrated form, 
all that had distinguished the preceding economies, from the 
giving of the first promise to its own establishment in Judea. 
Not even the holiest of all its members would have been what 
he was, had Enoch never " walked with God," or had the 
Bible omitted to record the fact. In that church, therefore, 
it may be truly said, Abel, though dead, was ever speaking ; 
and " Enoch, the seventh from Adam," was ever prophesying 
of the coming of the Lord. There, the patriarchs came and 
lived again for their posterity. There, the rod of Aaron was 
ever blooming ; the manna ever fresh ; * the rod of Moses 
ever working and repeating its wonders. There Sinai reared 
its awful head, and from its thundering top the law was ever 
demanding for God the heart of the world, and demanding 
from every man the love of all the rest. 

In the same sense the Bible has now discharged all the 
accumulated moral influences of the last economy into the 
present. The cross has received and transmitted the whole. 
Here, in effect, the temple of Jerusalem still stands. Though 
in a literal respect not one stone of that sacred pile remains 
upon another, in the hallowed influence which it sheds over 
the church of God it still lifts up its awful front — its fires 
still burn — its victims still bleed — its day of atonement still 
returns — its sanctity is still calling on the church for its 
entire consecration. We behold these objects now — we 
shall see them in eternity. All the great events and solemn 
transactions of the Old Testament may be regarded as having 
taken place in the Christian church. Here, in the ministry 
of the gospel, they do come and occur again. Here its mir- 
acles are still convincing, and its angelic messengers still 
appearing. Here Moses is still teaching self-renunciation, by 
wishing himself " blotted out from the book of life" for the 
good of others ; and David leading the intercessions of the 
church for the salvation of the ends of the earth ; and the 
prophets still " testifying of the sufferings of Christ and the 
glory that should follow." 

* Heb. ix. 4. 



108 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

And, what is more, here they are all present at once. 
Truths and events which for the Jewish church were scat- 
tered thinly over a long tract of time, are here collected to 
a point and made operative at once. Ages, with the men 
who made them memorable — and dispensations, with all the 
miraculous facts and sublime disclosures which distinguished 
them, pass in quick and close succession before our eyes; 
and we feel ourselves standing under the eye and influence 
of the whole. 

And, more even than this, there is reason to believe that 
great as was the influence which that economy was calculated 
to exercise during its actual existence, that influence has 
gone on gathering strength with each successive age, and is 
incalculably mightier at this moment for us than for those 
who lived in its immediate presence. Not only do all its 
parts act on us at once, — they act on us also in their highest 
and noblest form. For us it is all meaning and spirit, eman- 
cipated principle, and active power. Liberated from its 
former restraints, brought into the light of a more spiritual 
economy, and allowed free scope in the ampler sphere of the 
Christian church, its power is greater now than during its 
actual reign on Zion. As it was typical, it was temporary — 
formed for, and acting upon, " the time then present ; " but 
as it imbodied evangelical and immortal principles, it was 
far in advance of its time, and destined to act chiefly on the 
future. Who will not admit that the character of the Psalm- 
ist, for instance, is exercising much greater moral power now 
than when he was alive ? Who does not feel that his prayers 
for the universal diffusion of the truth, and the splendid vis- 
ions of prophecy in which those aspirations were seen realized, 
have not yet attained their proper place of power? — that 
they have all along been struggling to reach it — that they 
are only as yet beginning to produce their legitimate effect — 
and that with every successive year that effect, under God, is 
likely to increase ? What manner of persons ought we to be 
to whom all this rich inheritance has descended ! 

But together with all this influence from the former econ- 
omy, there blends a mightier influence peculiar to the present, 
a power so irresistible, that wherever it has had " free course," 
it has swept away the thrones of idolatry, changed the aspect 
of society, and left its impress on every object it has touched. 
Ours is the cross — the great power of God — not only 
absorbing and concentrating all the influences of the past, 



ILLUSTRATED FROM SCRIPTURE. 109 

but charged with a new power direct from God — containing 
in its bosom all the springs of benevolence the world will 
ever know; an energy of expansive goodness capable of 
replenishing the universe with light and love. Here God 
is seen enriching the world with a gift which leaves it noth- 
ing to dread, or to ask for more. Here Christ is seen taking 
the world to his heart — seizing our nature as it trembles 
over the bottomless gulf — assuming it into union with his 
own — taking our place under the descending stroke of jus- 
tice, and suffering in our stead. Before our eyes " Jesus 
Christ is here evidently set forth crucified amongst us." 
Here the Infinite Spirit himself descends from the heights 
of his everlasting dwelling-place, as a rushing mighty wind — 
and the cries of penitence are heard around. Here angels, 
drawn from heaven, bend to gaze, and labor to comprehend 
the mystery of incarnate love. Apostles come to lose them- 
selves in wonder, and exclaim, " Herein is love ; " and to sur- 
charge their hearts with a benevolence which impels them to 
the ends of the earth testifying that " the Father hath sent 
the Son to be the Savior of the world." Here the bigotry of 
the Synagogue, the doubts of the Academy, and the pride of 
the Portico, are seen kneeling around, and humbled in the 
dust. And here he who was the fit representative of them 
all, comes to smite on his breast, and say, " God forbid that I 
should henceforth glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus 
Christ " — and hastens away to fill the nations with the report 
of its glories, and to call on all who believed it to help him 
onwards to the regions beyond. 

If the influence of promises comparatively vague in their 
meaning, and indefinitely distant in their fulfilment, could 
produce, under God, the martyr-piety of Abel — the daunt- 
less fidelity of Enoch — the persevering obedience of Noah — 
the missionary pilgrimage of Abraham — and the self-sacri- 
ficing zeal of Moses ; if the comparatively feeble influences 
of the Jewish dispensation could create, under God, those 
splendid constellations of excellence which glow and burn in 
the eleventh chapter to the Hebrews, who shall set limits to 
that moral greatness and Christian devotedness which the 
mightier influences of the gospel should produce? To know 
that, in practical effect, a whole economy has existed for us, 
that is, for the church of which we are members — that for 
us its heroes lived, and its martyrs died — to know that for 
us that economy of a thousand years was at last dismissed, as 
10 



110 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

for us it had at first been called into being, leaving to us all 
its rich accumulations of inspired wisdom, godlike example, 
and moral wealth, — this, alone, should surely be sufficient 
to teach us the greatness of living for the future, and to 
kindle in our hearts the unquenchable desire of transmitting 
the great inheritance to those who succeed us, not merely 
unimpaired, but augmented by the influence of our own 
devotedness. 

But to know that that which displaced that economy was 
the personal advent, the visible humiliation, the actual sac- 
rifice of the Son of God — that the eternal Father should 
have so loved us as to give from his bosom " the express 
iuiage of his person " — should surely come on us with an 
effect which should leave us no power but that of obedience — 
no wish but that of multiplying our means of serving him a 
thousand-fold. " He that spared not his own Son, but deliv- 
ered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also," asks 
the apostle, "freely give us all things?" Might he not, 
with equal conclusiveness, have inquired, How shall toe not 
for him also freely give him all things? Before that gift 
could have been bestowed, the ocean of the divine benevo- 
lence must have been stirred in all its unfathomable depths; 
should the shallow stream of our gratitude be only rippled on 
the surface ? Of all his infinite resources, he freely gave the 
sum ; of the mite-like penury of our nature, shall we return 
him only a part ? To know that he who was rich should for 
our sakes have become poor — that the second person in the 
mysterious Godhead should have personally descended to our 
rescue — descended from one depth of humiliation to another, 
till a cross arrested his further descent, and made it impossible 
for divine condescension itself to stoop lower, — this is knowl- 
edge which, as it has moved all heaven, should surely be 
sufficient to move and agitate all earth. To hear that event 
succeeded by the sounds and signs of another advent — the 
advent of the Holy Spirit, as the converter and sanctifier of 
human souls — to find that thus each of the three persons in 
the awful and mysterious Godhead is infinitely interested in 
our recovery — that there has actually been disclosed, in 
consequence, a new bond of their ineffable union in the fact 
of their cooperation for that recovery, — and that so intently 
is the compassion of the Triune God set on the object, that 
no truth is left untaught, no miracle of mercy unperformed, 
no angel or agency unemployed, no part of the universe un- 



ILLUSTRATED FROM SCRIPTURE. Ill 

moved, no perfection of the divine nature unconcerned, no 
aspect of the divine character unexhibited, which is in the 
least essential to its accomplishment — surely this should 
leave no portion of the church at rest, no means within its 
farthest reach untaxed for the attainment of the same end. 

To find that this is clearly the divine design — that Christ, 
as the head of the church on earth, authoritatively requires 
that each individual Christian surrender himself, and live su- 
premely for the conversion of others ; that these unite into 
particular societies for the conversion of greater numbers 
still ; that all these societies, in every land, combine in sym- 
pathy and purpose for the salvation of the entire race; — to 
find that, as the President of the Universe, having " all power 
in heaven and on earth/' he commands and combines the 
sympathies and instrumentality of the church in heaven with 
that of the church on earth — assigning to angels the time 
and the place for their agency in providence, concurring with 
the movements of his kingdom of grace ; — and to find that 
in the same mediatorial capacity he even adds the presence 
and the renewing power of the Holy Spirit himself — surely 
this should leave no Christian unemployed, no church unre- 
lated, no agency we could invoke in earth or heaven to be 
absent from our combined endeavor to carry it into effect. And 
to find that this design is as practicable as it is obligatory ; to 
hear other Christians avowing their readiness to be messen- 
gers or martyrs — honored or " accursed,'' any thing or noth- 
ing — so that they might be instrumental in promoting it ; — 
to see churches selecting and sending out such men to carry 
the gospel onwards — other churches emulating their ex- 
ample ; — to find that each convert, as he comes into the 
church, is expected to proceed to his post and to commence 
his service, — and that each church, as it comes into being, is 
expected to enter into the general fellowship, and to help for- 
ward the common object of the whole ; to see that the suc- 
cess of one church is rejoiced in as the triumph of all, and 
that, if they suspend their song of praise for a while, it is only 
to read over again the command which first sent them forth, 
" Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every crea- 
ture " — to prostrate themselves in prayer for that aid which 
the Spirit alone can impart, and which furnishes them with 
renewed occasion for louder triumphs still — this is a spec- 
tacle which should surely leave no other question on the lips 
of the individual Christian than, " Where is my post, and 



112 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

what shall I do ? " and no other law for the church universal 
than that of entire consecration. 

Now, this was the prayer of Christ, not for the apostles 
only, " but for them also," he adds, " who shall believe on 
me through their word ; that they all may be one, # # * that 
the world may believe that thou hast sent me." Finding 
themselves acted on by hallowed and benevolent influences 
from every quarter, and from the remotest period of the 
church, surrounded by lofty examples of Christian devoted- 
ness, and ever standing in the presence of his wondrous cross, 
he prayed that they might feel themselves impelled to make 
his consecration the model and motive of their own, that God 
might be glorified, and man be saved. 

Be it remembered, also, as we shall hereafter have occasion 
to show, that there is a sense in which we of the present day 
sustain the acccumulated responsibility of the eighteen cen- 
turies which have revolved since that prayer was uttered. In 
each succeeding age, " the truth " to which it refers, has, 
through the promised agency of the Holy Spirit, been exer- 
cising its consecrating influence, and instrumentally creat- 
ing eminent examples of conscientiousness which treated no 
duty as unwelcome, and which evaded no obligation — of fidel- 
ity which spared no sin, nor allowed any iniquity, however 
splendid and powerful, to pass unrebuked — of courage which 
cowered before no danger, and shrunk from no conflict — of 
enlarged benevolence which knew no limits to its plans, and 
toils, and travels for the welfare of man — of Christian self- 
abandonment, which swore eternal devotedness to Christ, 
though in the presence of the flames which were kindled for 
its martyrdom — and of love for man, which, even in those 
flames, wept over the misery of the world, and agonized in 
prayer for its recovery. These examples are not lost, though 
their memory is not embalmed in the volume of inspiration ; 
their influence has been really added to that of patriarchs and 
prophets, of apostles and primitive saints. Whether we are 
conscious of its stimulating power or not, we are all at this 
moment reaping its advantage, and are consequently standing 
under the weight of an increased responsibility. 

And to this, as the next chapter is intended to evince, is 
also to be added the influence acting on us from the prophetic 
disclosures of the future. The torch which the hand of 
prophecy holds up, throws its beams onwards to the consum- 
mation of all things. By this light we catch glimpses of 



ILLUSTRATED FROM SCRIPTURE. 113 

noble examples yet to arise, and of glories yet to dawn. 
Many are seen running to and fro with the message of salva- 
tion — the Spirit poured out from on high to give it success 
— multitudes flocking to embrace it — angels discharging 
destruction on its foes — mountainous obstacles rolled from 
its path — nations walking in its light — heaven and earth 
celebrating its triumphs — and Christ, encircled by his re- 
deemed myriads, and receiving the homage of the universe. 
One of the obvious intentions of these disclosures is, that, 
by the certain prospect they afford of ultimate success, the 
church may be encouraged to act out its divine design, and 
to throw all its sanctified energies into the object of the 
world's recovery. This is the effect which they have had on 
many of its members in every age. " Having seen them afar 
off," and caught their inspiration, the martyr for Christ has 
embraced the block — the minister has startled the slumber- 
ing church — the missionary has gone forth to awake the 
slumbering world — the saint, like David, has poured out as 
his latest prayer, " Blessed be his holy name forever and ever, 
and let the whole earth be filled with his glory ; " and the 
church has echoed with the response of thousands, adding, 
" Amen, and amen." And for us the light of prophecy still 
burns, that on us it may produce the same effects. 

And who is sufficient for these things? " We are placed, 
as it were, in the middle of a scheme, not a fixed but a pro- 
gressive one." The character of the economy under which 
our lot is cast, is, in this respect, unity in progress — unity 
with all the past, in progress for all the future. Upon our 
heads, the relations, influences, and consequent responsibil- 
ities of all the past meet and rest, and to us the ends of the 
earth, the remotest generations of time, and all the holy 
beings and interests in the universe, are looking for corre- 
sponding fidelity and zeal. Whoever may deem it necessary 
to form plans of independent action, we are surely exempted 
from the necessity ; for we ourselves form parts of a mediato- 
rial plan, whose provisions prepared a place for us, and be- 
spoke the entire activity and influence of our whole nature, 
even before we came into existence ; so that the only solici- 
tude left for us is, how best w T e may satisfy its high require- 
ments. Boast who may of extensive relations and influence, 
this plan connects us with every being and agency the past 
has known, and places in our hand lines of interminable rela- 
tion and influence with all the universal and endless future. 
10* 



114 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

Tremble who may under a sense of responsibility, " upon us 
the ends of the world are come." Our very position conse- 
crates us to the loftiest service, loads us with the weightiest 
obligation, surrounds us with anxious eyes and cries of solici- 
tude from every quarter of the divine dominions. For the 
church to be faithful now, is to save the world. Now, if 
ever, " the weak should be as David, and David as an angel 
of the Lord." Now, if ever, prayer should wrestle — liber- 
ality should bring forth its richest offering, its final mite — 
the church should unite and clothe itself with zeal. For 
now, if ever, crowns may be gained, and kingdoms won, and 
a world, in the crisis of its danger, be saved — crowns to be 
cast at the feet of Christ, kingdoms of which he is rightful 
Lord ; and a world from which he is destined to derive his 
richest revenue of praise forever. 



CHAPTER III. 



CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY FOR THE EVANGELIZATION 
OF THE WORLD ILLUSTRATED AND ENFORCED FROM 
PROPHECY. 

If such be the theory of Christian instrumentality — if its 
place in the divine administration be so definite — its obliga- 
tions so solemn — and its capabilities, under God, so great, we 
may reasonably expect that in a book so abounding with pro- 
phetic disclosures as the Bible, some glimpses, at least, will 
be afforded us of its ultimate results. 

That the kingdom of Christ is not to be always limited and 
depressed, is clearly affirmed and universally admitted. For, 
as it has been justly remarked, " The prophecies respecting 
the kingdom of the Messiah, its extension and duration, and 
the happiness of his innumerable subjects, are in a much 
greater proportion than those which describe his humiliation 
to sufferings, and his dreadful death." * The isles are to wait 
for his law — the ends of the earth are to fear him — all na- 

* Rev. J. P. Smith, D. D. 



ILLUSTRATED FROM PROPHECY. 115 

tions are to be blessed in him — the heathen are to become 
his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth his pos- 
session ; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. 

Inspired by the kindling influence of such a prospect, the 
Christian church has, in every age, sung of a millennium, — a 
period during which all the authorities of earth are to take 
law and life from the lips of Christ ; all nations to be enrolled 
among his subjects ; all flesh to come before him ; and all his 
enemies to be placed beneath his feet. 

But if the Bible be thus the prophet of hope, and if the 
loftiest strains of those who believe it be of a glory yet 
to come, it becomes proportionably important to inquire 
whether it deigns any disclosures concerning the means which 

• are to lead to it ; whether the universal triumph of the gos- 
pel is to be achieved, for example, by the noiseless and grad- 
ually augmented instrumentality of the Christian church, 
accompanied by the energizing influence of the Holy Spirit ; 
whether it is to be effected in a manner quite irrespective of 
such instrumentality, and calculated to disparage it before 
the eyes of the universe as misplaced and officious ; or 
whether the grand consummation shall be realized by a mid- 
dle course, which, while it will be always demanding, em- 
ploying, and absorbing all the sanctified resources of the 
Christian church, will yet leave room for the marked, and 
frequent, and direct interference of Heaven, and which will 
render such interposition indispensable to final and complete 
success. 

This, indeed, has been a subject of the deepest interest to 
the church in every age. For as her heralds have gone 
forth to proclaim the gospel, and her martyrs have poured 
out their blood to seal its truth, which of their bosoms did 
not swell with the ennobling thought which fired the bosom 

j of Latimer in Smithfield — that they were assisting to enkin- 

! die alight which should never be extinguished — that their de- 
votedness would be in some way connected with the eventual 
triumph of the cross, and be made subservient to it? In 
proportion, however, as the time of the end approaches, the 
question as to the relation which sanctified human instrumen- 

\ tality bears to it, acquires additional interest. A thousand 
signs are supposed to prognosticate that the end draweth 
nigh ; and each of them awakens the inquiry anew, " What 
is the relation which the sanctified agency of Christians sus- 
tains to it? Is their benevolent activity essential, in the order 



116 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

of means, to the latter-day glory ? or does the tenor of proph- 
ecy indicate that, so far from contributing aught to its arrival 
and its splendor, they should rather " stand still, and see the 
salvation of the Lord ' " ? 

Still more important does this inquiry become in propor- 
tion as Christians, awaking to what they regard as the voice 
of duty, multiply their institutions, and enlarge the sphere of 
their activity, animated by the hope that their humble endeav- 
ors shall certainly be crowned with success. Who that sur- 
veys the wide field of missionary effort in the present day, 
and marks the " note of preparation" for still greater activity, 
can feel indifferent to the inquiry, whether or not it is to 
lead to any valuable result? Who does not perceive that on 
the* answer to this inquiry depends, if not the very continu- 
ance of our activity, much, at least, of the cheerfulness of our 
obedience, and the degree of our devotedness? And who 
does not perceive that if the glory of the millennium is to 
burst on the world quite irrespective of Christian instrumen- 
tality, to urge such instrumentality as the appointed means of 
hastening that period is to indulge in delusion for the present, 
and to prepare mortification for the future ? 

But should there be those in the church of any consider- 
ation or influence, whose views of prophecy induce them to 
depreciate, if not even to deprecate, the high attempt which 
aims at the conversion of the world, it becomes a step of the 
first importance to inquire into the authority of such views, 
and, if found unscriptural, to obviate their paralyzing effect. 
We are aware, indeed, that among those who, for the sake of 
distinction, are called millenarians, there are to be found di- 
vines of considerable reputation, and Christians of the highest 
sanctity. And equally aware are we that under the generic 
name of millenarianism is included a great diversity of opin- 
ions as to the order of the events immediately preceding the 
millennium, and the kind of means which will be made con- 
tributory to it — that it does not necessarily disparage the 
benevolent endeavors of the present day, nor seek to dis- 
courage them by constantly harping on their ultimate failure 
— but that many of those who hold it profess to derive from 
it motives to increased diligence in the cause of God. And, 
accordingly, some of them, we are aware, number among the 
liberal and active supporters of our religious institutions. 
Still, however, we cannot but suspect that in many of such 
instances, we are indebted for what they do, rather to the 



ILLUSTRATED FROM PROPHECY. 117 

very natural desire of recommending their peculiar views to 
others than to the views themselves — that their conduct is, 
in this particular, better than their creed — that it is the 
triumph of their piety over their opinions — and that, as a 
vehicle put into rapid motion will continue to advance for 
a while, by its own momentum, after the power which first pro- 
pelled it is withdrawn, their present activity is the result of 
principles which date anterior to their peculiar views of 
prophecy. Our warrant for this fear is to be found in the 
fact that of those who, prior to their adoption of millenarian- 
ism, " did run well," and who even subsequently continued 
for a while to move in the same direction, a very large pro- 
portion are now acting, in reference to the diffusion of the 
gospel, as if a prophet had been deputed to say to them, 
" Your strength is to sit still." 

That such must be the necessary effect of all views of the 
future which tend to show that the endeavors of the present 
will prove abortive, is evident. Hope is the parent of all 
activity. We ourselves " are saved by hope ; " and we shall 
attempt instrumentally to save others only as we are animated 
by the same principle. To be doomed to labor without 
hope, has been mythologically represented as one of the 
punishments of the lost. To expect, then, that the same 
efforts will be made where failure is certain, as where suc- 
cess is anticipated, is to overlook a fundamental principle of 
human nature. 

To say that " duty is ours and events are God's," and 
that therefore we are to advance whatever the result may be, 
is to forget the important fact, that, in the case before us, the 
" events/ 5 according to the millenarian, are no longer God's, 
for he is supposed to have clearly foretold them. This pro- 
verbial saying, therefore, has no application here. As long 
as the result of a course of duty is doubtful only, hope and 
fear alternate ; nor would it be possible for fear entirely to 
prevail without bringing the mind to the full and fatal pause 
of despair. But in the question under consideration, we are 
not supposed to be left in a state of uncertainty as to the 
issue of our endeavors, but to be distinctly apprized that they 
will end in defeat. And the known and inevitable tendency 
of such a state of mind is (with certain exceptions of the 
kind we have noticed) to produce relative inaction. For if 
the members of the Christian church were to be now divided 
into those who are strenuous in the cause of missions, and 



118 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

those who are comparatively inert, where should we expect 
to find the latter but among those who are postponing the 
moral improvement of the world to the second coming of 
Christ ; and who, relying on the sufficiency of that future 
miracle, anticipate little or no advantage from the use of 
'present means ? Nor would our expectation, it is to be feared, 
be disappointed. 

On a question, then, involving nothing less than the move- 
ments and hopes of the Christian church in relation to the 
world, and the practical aspect of prophecy towards each, 
it is important that we should distinctly state what it is we 
object to in others, and what are the views and expectations 
which, from a consideration of prophecy, we ourselves are 
led to entertain. 

With the minor points of controversy in the pre-millennial 
creed, we have at present nothing to do : nor even with the 
great question of the " personal advent." From more than a 
cursory survey of prophecy, the writer is free to admit that 
the hope of those who anticipate that the happy reign of piety 
on earth will be attained by the peaceful and uninterrupted 
progress of the means at present employed, and by these 
alone, is unwarranted by Scripture. 

The cause of Christ, as now conducted, is no doubt des- 
tined to sustain many a severe encounter and disheartening 
reverse. And even his coming * — the advent of his power, 
in strange providences, and at critical junctures — may again 
and again be necessary in order to turn the battle at the gate, 
and to crown it with success. But that which we strenuously 
oppose is the practical inference too generally drawn from 
the pre-millennial creed, and which operates, as we think, 
both to the dishonor of the prophetic Scriptures, and to the 
discouragement of Christian activity — namely, that because 
a mighty conflict may await the Christian church, and because 
the marked interposition of Christ may be necessary to ter- 
minate that struggle, and to take actual and entire possession 
of the earth, therefore but little real good is to be expected 
from the most devoted endeavors of the church at present. 
And that which we hope to substantiate is, first, that such an 
inference is at variance with some of the admitted principles 



* The naQovala^ox " coming of Christ," is referred to various prov- 
idential events, by some of those, even, who believe that it relates 
preeminently to a personal pre-millennial advent. 



ILLUSTRATED FROM PROPHECY. 119 

and necessary deductions of divine revelation ; secondly, that 
it is not warranted by prophecy itself; but, thirdly, that the 
very reverse is the doctrine of the prophetic Scriptures, and, 
fourthly, is found to be in perfect harmony with every other 
part of the Word of God, by which its correctness can be 
properly tested. 

The prosecution of this inquiry will, if we do not greatly 
mistake, disclose the important facts, that whatever conflicts' 
may hereafter ensue between the church and the world, will 
be provoked chiefly by the success of the gospel, — and that 
whatever judgments the earth may yet be called to witness, 
they will only concur with the power of the gospel, like the 
miracles of the primitive church, to enlarge the domains of 
the Christian faith ; so that those very predictions, which are 
too often made to depress the hopes, and dishearten the zeal, 
of the church, will be found calculated, when rightly under- 
stood, to animate its activity as with the blast of a trumpet. 
It will then be our aim, in concluding the chapter, to har- 
monize the whole with the chapters which have gone before ; 
and to show the bearing of the entire Part on the consecra- 
tion of the church for the conversion of the world. 

I. " Every single text of prophecy," remarks Bishop Hors- 
ley, " is to be considered as part of an entire system, and to 
be understood in that sense which may best connect it with 
the whole." Extending still farther the application of this 
valuable rule of prophetic exposition, we may add, that the 
entire scheme of prophecy itself is to be regarded as a part 
of the great system of revelation, and to be understood in that 
sense which may best harmonize with every other part. 

1. Now, if there be a principle in Scripture to be relied 
on, surely it is this, that the divine injunction of any relative 
duty implies a promise of the divine assistance requisite to 
its performance, and of success proportioned to the degree in 
which we avail ourselves of that assistance. In illustration 
of this position, it will be sufficient to quote the familiar pas- 
sage, " Train up a child in the way he should go; and when 
he is old, he will not depart from it." Nor does this lan- 
guage, or the large class of Scriptures to which it belongs, 
imply any thing more than that the moral department of the 
divine government is conducted on a plan equally with the 
natural or physical ; that in the world of mind, as well as of 
matter, certain causes produce certain effects. The effects, 



120 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

indeed, may not result precisely in accordance with human 
calculations. As in the ministry of Christ, they may be long 
delayed, and even apparently be made frustrate. But though 
" he was despised and rejected of men," the same chapter 
which foretold his rejection, adds, " He shall see of the travail 
of his soul, and shall be satisfied ; " and every subsequent 
age has witnessed its gradual fulfilment. This constancy of 
connection, indeed, between means and ends — between 
causes and effects — seems essential to the character of a 
wise and gracious government, as well as to furnish some of 
the motives necessary to obedience ; especially, too, as it still 
reserves to its Divine Sovereign the right of exceeding his 
promises in whatever way he pleases. v 

But, according to the views of many of those of whom we 
are speaking, here is a grand exception to the uniformity of 
the divine procedure. Yes, in the very last act, the closing 
scene of the great drama of Providence, — where, if apparent 
irregularity had previously obtained, we should rather have 
looked for the explanation and coincidence of the whole, — 
even here, forsooth, the universe is to witness the disruption 
of a principle which had previously maintained the stability 
of a rock ; a great gulf is to open and yawn between means 
and ends. For though the commands of God had pointed 
to a particular issue, — the conversion of the world; and 
though the hopes and endeavors of his people had, in de- 
pendence on his gracious aid, travelled in the same direction, 
it is then to appear that they had never tended to realize it, 
and that a stupendous miracle alone can prevent the dreadful 
result. Thus the prophecies of Scripture are made to clash 
with its commands. 

2. Equally at variance does such an interpretation appear 
with the unimpeachable sincerity of the divine character. 
The substance of all the relative commands which God has 
enjoined is this, " Evangelize the world ; " and the substance 
of all his promises corresponds with it, — " The world shall 
be evangelized." In obedience to this command, and ani- 
mated by this promise, his church is beginning to address 
itself more seriously than ever to its great vocation. But 
while it is allowed that the command which enjoins this duty, 
and the promise which inspires this hope, stand out so clearly 
on the sacred page that he who runs may read, it is con- 
tended by the party in question that a third class of Sacred 
Scripture comes to light ; more occult, it may be, in mean- 



ILLUSTRATED FROM PROPHECY. 121 

ing, and requiring very prolonged and careful consideration ; 
but the practical result of which is, that obedience to the 
command will prove all but fruitless for the end proposed, 
and that the hope of personal success inspired by the promise 
is almost entirely unfounded. As if a king should forward 
to the commander of his forces positive orders to engage the 
foe, accompanied with assurances of certain triumph, but 
should interline the despatches with a secret writing in 
cipher, which required to be held to the fire and laboriously 
studied in order to be understood, and the inference to be 
drawn from which was, that the campaign would end in all 
but entire defeat, and that the victory promised would ensue 

! in a manner quite irrespective of his conflicts. Such a com- 
munication would throw at least a deep shade on the sincer- 

j ity of him who sent it. 

3. Nor does such an interpretation seem less to impugn 
the benignity of the divine character. Instead of taking it 
for granted that we should be enamored of duty for its own 
sake alone, he evinces the kindest consideration for our fallen 
condition by accompanying his commands with appropriate 
promises and blessings ; graciously alluring us to cultivate 
the tree by engaging that its fruits shall be our own. The 
Savior himself was not called to suffer without enjoying the 
sustaining prospect of its glorious results. On the lofty moral 
elevation of the cross, the triumphs of his gospel, through all 
the ages of time, passed in review before him ; and " for the 
joy which was thus set before him, he endured the cross, 
despising the shame." 

But on the hypothesis in question his followers are required 
to labor and suffer, not only without the hope of consequent 
usefulness, but even in the clear foresight of comparative 
failure. Now to expect that we should be as active in our 
efforts to evangelize the world in the face of this foreseen 
defeat as we should be in the prospect of success, is, to say 
the least, at variance with that benignity by which we are 
accustomed to regard the divine requirements as ordinarily 
distinguished. 

4. It may properly be objected, also, that the hypothesis 
which makes prophecy disclose the comparative failure of a 
course of conduct which the command of God has yet made 
obligatory, is at variance with that wise reserve of Scripture 
concerning such events of the future as involve the freedom 
of human action. While some of the prophecies predictive 

11 



122 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

of happy results are so constructed as to encourage the obe- 
dience of those whom they chiefly concern, and others pre- 
dictive of evil are calculated to produce repentance, and 
while they thus denote the benignity of their Author, by fur- 
nishing motives to holiness, there is none which, if rightly 
interpreted, can be regarded as furnishing a single motive 
of a contrary nature. But according to the views we are 
opposing, here is a large class of prophecies the tendency of 
which is to dishearten obedience by depriving it prospectively 
of its appropriate results ; thus interfering with that proba- 
tionary freedom of action which a concealment of the future 
would have left undisturbed. 

5. Besides which, the views in question appear highly 
derogatory to the present economy as the dispensation of the 
Spirit, and to the ordinance of preaching as the medium of 
his operation. " Glorious things are spoken " in prophecy of 
the results which should signalize the impartation of the 
Spirit. If Isaiah, for instance, be asked how long the spirit- 
ual desolation of his people, as at present exhibited, will con- 
tinue, he replies,* " Until the Spirit be poured upon us from 
on high ; then shall the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the 
fruitful field be esteemed a forest." If we inquire of the 
Lord, at the hand of Ezekiel, by what agency the Jews are to 
be finally converted, and made eminent in the earth, the 
reply is substantially the same; f " Neither will I hide my face 
any more from them ; for I have poured out my Spirit upon 
the house of Israel, saith the Lord God." In the prophecy 
of Joel the promise of the Spirit takes a still wider range ; 
" For it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will 
pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh." J Gentiles as well as 
Jews are included in its comprehensive embrace ; for, says the 
apostle Paul, when quoting a part of the prediction,^ " There 
is no difference between the Jew and the Greek ; for the same 
Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whoso- 
ever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." 

Here, then, is a series of predictions importing that during 
the last days || spiritual transformations of the most glorious 

* * Chap, xxxii. 15 ; see also Zech. iv. 6. 
t Chap, xxxix. 29. 
$ Chap. ii. 28, as quoted Acts ii. 17. 
§ Rom. x. 12, 13. 

|| The phrase tiWn tl^na, LXX lv ralg la X uraig Ijidqai;, 
originally and properly denoted future times. But as the eoming of 



ILLUSTRATED FROM PROPHECY. 123 

and comprehensive nature shall result from the impartation of 
the Holy Spirit. From the day of Pentecost down to the 
present, the Spirit has effected these transformations chiefly 
through the preaching of the gospel. Even on that memorable 
day, the " signs and wonders " which attended his effusion only 
prepared the way for the pungent address of the apostle Peter. 
It was " when they heard this" that the arrows of the Lord 
took effect in three thousand hearts. Miraculous phenomena 
may be employed to engage the requisite attention for a mes- 
senger from God, and adequately to attest the divinity of his 
message, and may even disarm unbelief, and enlist the judg- 
ment on the side of the truth; but when the heart is to be 
pierced and subdued, the " message " itself is " the sword of 
the Spirit." Whence we may infer that in all subsequent 
times, whatever miraculous means may be subordinately em 
ployed, his renewing influence will be exerted principally 
through the same instrumentality. And as the church has 
not yet witnessed any thing answering to the fulfilment of 
these predictions, as an untouched ocean of spiritual influ- 
ence is yet contained in them, we are to conclude that, great 
as the triumphs of the gospel at times have been already, a 
period is impending when we shall see far greater things than 
these. So that any views which cast but a passing shade on 
that happy prospect, or which transfer the honor of effecting 
them to any other department of the divine government, must 
be regarded as disparaging to the dispensation of the Spirit, 
and to the divine appointment of the diffusion of the gospel as 
the medium of his influence. 

II. But instead of multiplying objections to a view which 
may prove on investigation to have no foundation in Scrip- 
ture, let us, secondly, inquire whether it can produce any 
direct warrant from the word of God. 

In applying the predictions of the Old Testament to the 
present economy, our first care should be to select those only 
which cannot possibly have found their accomplishment in 
the restoration of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity. 

Now, confining our attention to a few of such only, we find 

the Messiah was, for the Jew, the most glorious event in all the fu- 
ture, the phrase came to be appropriated to the period of his advent 
and reign. Accordingly, in the New Testament, for example, in 
Acts ii. 17, Heb. i. 2, 1 Pet. i. 20, it is employed to denote the times 
ever since the first coming of Christ. 



124 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

that the predictions relative to the enlargement of the kingdom 
of Christ may be arranged in reference to the question before 
us, i. e. as to the means of that enlargement, into five classes. 

1. The first class consists of those predictions which simply 
announce the final evangelization of the earth ; such are Ps. 
xxii. 27, Hab. ii. 14, and Mai. i. 11. But as this class is 
silent, except by inference, concerning both the agent and 
means by which the end predicted will be attained, they leave 
us to pursue our inquiry in other quarters. 

2. A second class describes the agent, but is silent con- 
cerning the means. Looking forward to the final union of 
Israel and Judah, the Almighty promises, " Moreover, I will 
make a covenant of peace with them ; it shall be an ever- 
lasting covenant with them; and I will place them and mul- 
tiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of 
them forevermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them : 
yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people." * 
Here, the hand engaged is divine, while the means to be em- 
ployed are apparently omitted. But even supposing that the 
nature of those means could in no instance be inferred from 
a consideration of the context, we should be as much war- 
ranted in concluding that the changes predicted would be 
accomplished by human instrumentality, as any other party 
would be in advocating a purely miraculous fulfilment. 
Spiritual transformations are in Scripture ascribed to God 
when they are effected by such means, as directly as if 
they were effected without them ; and for this simple rea- 
son, that the efficient cause of the change is exclusively 
divine. " So then neither is he that planteth any thing, 
neither he that watereth ; but God that giveth the increase. " 
Still, then, we are left to look farther for a description of the 
means by which the world is to be planted and watered for 
the divine "increase." 

3. Now the millenarian supposes that he has found these 
in a third class of Sacred Scriptures, which foretells a series 
of judgments and preternatural events, to be followed by per- 
manent and universal blessedness. The existence of such a 
class we not only readily, but joyfully, admit. But here it is 
obvious to remark that such providential occurrences have no 
moral adaptation whatever, to renovate the minds of men ; 
" for, if they believe not Moses and the prophets, neither will 
they believe, though one rose from the dead." All that such 

* Ezek. xxxvii. 26, 27. 



ILLUSTRATED FROM PROPHECY. 125 

dispensations are appointed to effect is, as we have already 
remarked, to prepare the way, under the overruling guidance 
of God, for the wider diffusion of the gospel. When the 
river of living water, deepening and widening in its onward 
course, has reached some Alps or Andes, which threaten to 
arrest forever its healing progress, Omnipotence will then 
say to the mountainous obstacle, " Be thou removed, and be 
thou cast into the sea," and onward the tide of life shall flow. 
So that the most stupendous events of Providence must be 
regarded, even when they are charged with the greatest 
results, as only secondary and subordinate to the spiritual 
influences of the truth. 

Allowing, then, for the sake of the argument, that all the 
momentous events which are supposed by many to be now 
impending, are actually at hand, — surely they are not to be 
spoken of by the Christian in terms of gloom and depreca- 
tion. If they are to " turn out rather to the furtherance of 
the gospel, " we ought to hail them with welcome, and the 
church with congratulations. Let us not be told, for instance, 
with looks of solicitude, that the honor of converting the 
world is not designed for us, but is reserved for the restored 
and enlightened Jews. Even admitting that it is so, it is 
enough for us to know that success is not, meanwhile, with- 
held from Gentile Christians ; but that our usefulness is in the 
full proportion of our endeavors ; and that we have scriptural 
reason to believe it will continue to be so. And if, besides 
this cheering fact, we can be certified that, great as our suc- 
cess is, the spiritual triumphs of a coming day, and of an- 
other people, will be incomparably greater, we " therein do 
rejoice, yea, and will rejoice." Could we now be assured 
that in India, for example, " a nation had been born in a 
day ; " that great numbers of its converts were going " every 
where, preaching the word ; " and that wherever they 
preached, more than the triumphs of apostolic days were the 
result, would not our " joy be as the joy of harvest "1 and if 
ever the period should come when a similar report shall be 
true of the Jewish people, will our transports be less? 
" Would to God that all the Lord's people were prophets ! " 
and would to God that they were so at once ! " For in 
Christ Jesus there is neither Greek nor Jew." The joy of 
one would be the joy of all. 

But, says the millenarian, the period of which you speak 
will be introduced by appalling judgments. And in what age 
11* 



126 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

of the world, we ask, was the progress of religion ever unat- 
tended by such visitations? Were the ancient Israelites 
restored from their Chaldean exile, and the temple rebuilt, 
without changing the fortunes of the political world ? Did 
the unity of the Roman empire, at the commencement of 
Christianity, provide for the easier circulation of the gospel 
through the civilized world ? But how many a fair and pop- 
ulous province was subjugated in order to that unity ! Did 
God design to bring the uncivilized world, soon after, under 
the influence of the gospel ? The end was gained by the 
northern invasion, and the consequent breaking up of the 
Roman empire. And be it remembered, that these are 
events which, though described by us with a stroke of the 
pen, filled the eye of the prophet with a vision of broken 
thrones, and his ear with the shriek of expiring nations ; 
events which, when they occurred, threw the earth into 
political convulsions, and the history of which might be easily 
expanded into blood-stained volumes. Nor have the last fifty 
years fallen short, in eventful interest, of any equal period, 
perhaps, since time began. 

In the sacred calendar of prophecy we may suppose these 
years to have been marked with peculiar signs. Europe — 
the world — has been in a state of volcanic activity. Yet 
stand with Daniel on the bank of the River Ulai, and you will 
see that all these events belong to a series which know no 
pause. Stand with the seer of the Apocalypse " in the isle 
which is called Patmos," and you will see that, from the very 
first age of Christianity, seal after seal has been opened ; 
trumpet after trumpet sounded ; and vial after vial poured out 
without intermission ; that if there has been " silence in 
heaven about the space of half an hour," it has been only 
the profound silence which precedes the bursting of a scene 
of stupendous interest. Speak not, then, as if the Almighty 
were about to clothe himself with judgment, and to arise out 
of his place now, for the first time. The solemn events 
which are yet to transpire belong to a series which began in 
Eden. Like the pillar of cloud and of fire, they only indi- 
cate the continued presence of Him who, having accom- 
panied the march of his cause through all the ages of past 
time, is graciously pledged to vindicate, sustain, and facilitate 
its progress through all the future ; and who thus furnishes 
his people with motives to increased activity, and inspires 
them with the hope of success. 



ILLUSTRATED FROM PROPHECY. 127 

But, says the millenarian, the events which impend are 
charged with unexampled judgments ; they contain the very 
dregs of the vials of wrath. Still, we reply, they are only 
events which harmonize with the progress of the gospel and 
the wants of the world ; and which show that providence and 
grace are but two departments of the same universal govern- 
ment. For in what are these judgments to consist? In the 
subversion of the Mahometan empire ? in the destruction of 
the man of sin ? in the overthrow of Antichrist, Mahometan, 
Papal, and Infidel? in the purgation of Christendom? And 
is this a consummation which the Christian should dread ? Is 
this a prospect which should paralyze our activity, or depress 
our expectations of usefulness? Has the empire of impos- 
ture been so innoxious in its influence that we shall be tender 
of its termination? Has the mystic Babylon been so sparing 
of the blood of the saints, and so true to the interests of the 
church, that we should deprecate the descent of the angel 
who is to " lighten the earth with his glory," while he cries 
" mightily with a loud voice, Babylon the great is fallen, is 
fallen " ? Is the pouring out of the seventh vial on the air, 
the seat of Satan's empire, a prospect to fill us with appre- 
hension ? True, the accomplishment of these events may 
ask a larger theatre, and the arm of Providence may take a 
wider sweep, than has hitherto been deemed requisite. For 
who can expect that forms of evil, nursed in conflict, and 
which have attained the growth of centuries, will yield the 
final contest, and retire to the pit whence they issued, with- 
out a struggle ? and what if that contest should enlist, on 
one side or the other, the ardent sympathies of all creation ? 
if the earth should be cleared of every minor interest till this 
is decided — what if the battle of Armageddon be fought? 
What should it show but that the world was at length com- 
pletely aroused from that moral torpor in which it has ever 
slumbered, and to awake it from which had often been the 
earnest endeavor of the church? and what if, on the eve of 
that conflict, the armies of the living God should find that 
He, on whose " head are many crowns," who " hath on his 
vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of kings and 
Lord of lords," had led forth the armies of heaven, " on 
white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean," and 
that they were actually mingling with their martial ranks, 
and already shouting of victory? what could be the issue, 
but glorious triumph? What, but an ample godlike answer 



128 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

to the prayers of ten thousand times ten thousand saints — to 
the cries and throes of the whole creation, till then groaning 
and travailing in pain together ? And is this a prospect to be 
spoken of in terms of gloom and sadness ? Ask we how 
Heaven regards it? The vision has for ages filled it with 
Alleluias — " and the four-and-twenty elders/' saith John, 
" and the four living creatures, fell down, and worshipped God, 
that sat upon the throne, saying, Amen ; Alleluia. And a 
voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye 
his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great. And 
I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the 
voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunder- 
ings, saying, Alleluia; for the Lord God Omnipotent reign- 
eth." * 

III. Still, the millenarian may add, Does not the very ne- 
cessity for such a conflict, together with the character of the 
parties, and the numbers who will join in it, indicate that the 
previous diffusion of the gospel will have proved, in its spir- 
itual results, a comparative failure? This, we are aware, is 
your inference. But against such a conclusion, we propose 
to adduce a fourth class of Sacred Scriptures which clearly 
predicts that the diffusion of the Word of God shall be at- 
tended with the most glorious results. 

4. And here we might first refer to certain prophecies 
which foretell that even during an era of great judgments — 
in one of the very crises of the world's tribulations — the 
evangelization and salvation of mankind, so far from being 
arrested, shall proceed and triumph. " For when thy judg- 
ments are in the earth/' saith the prophet Isaiah, " the inhab- 
itants of the world will learn righteousness ; " — thy heaviest 
inflictions will subserve thy purposes of mercy in the salvation 
of mankind. 

But let us rather direct our attention to a small selection 
of those prophecies which describe the future enlargement of 
the church as the result of Christian teaching. 

" And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the moun- 
tain of Jehovah's house shall be established in the top [or, as 
the chief] of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the 
hills ; and all the nations shall flow unto it. Yea, many peo- 
ple shall go and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain 

* Rev. xix. 4 — 6. 



ILLUSTRATED FROM PROPHECY. 129 

of Jehovah, to the house of the God of Jacob ; that he may 
teach us his ways, and that we may walk in his paths. For 
out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of Jehovah 
from Jerusalem. And he shall arbitrate between the nations, 
and dispense justice to many people ; so that they shall beat 
their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning- 
knives : nation shall not lift up the sword against nation, 
neither shall they learn war any more." * Here the church is 
represented as being central and accessible to the entire race, 
and as capable of receiving and accommodating a worshipping 
world as the temple on Zion had been to the tribes of Israel. 
And the points to be particularly remarked are, that, of the 
nations thronging to it, the great mass has been influenced by 
the exhortation, " Come, and let us go up to the mountain of 
Jehovah ; " and that the reason which moves the world towards 
this central point is, that " out of Zion shall go forth the law, 
and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem " — that through the 
appointed instrumentality of the gospel, they hope to be made 
wise unto salvation ; while the result of that divine teaching 
upon the great society of the nations is to be, the utter aboli- 
tion of war, the cultivation of the arts of peace, and the 
recognition of the divine authority as universal and supreme. 

On another occasion,! the prophet, having described the 
peace and happiness to be enjoyed under the reign of Mes- 
siah, in a strain surpassing the sublimest notes in which the 
classical poets celebrate the return to the golden age, adds, 
in explanation of the glorious change, " For the earth shall 
be full of the knowledge f of Jehovah, as the waters cover 
the sea." The universal diffusion of that knowledge which 
" is life eternal," is assigned as the cause of the happy trans- 
formation. 

Now, if to these bright anticipations it should be objected, 
that they will not be realized till after the calling and conver- 
sion of the Jews, and by their instrumentality, we might con- 
tent ourselves with replying, that the question pending relates 
not to the specific personal agency by which these prophe- 



* Isaiah ii. 2 — 4. This passage, with slight verbal differences, is 
found also in Micah iv. 1 — 3. 
t Chap. xi. 9. 
+ nin^T)^ WT a verbal noun, construed as an infinitive ; and, as 

t : t •• 

such, denoting the mind as the scat of the knowledge, and the activ- 
ity of the mind in relation to it. 



130 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

cies will be fulfilled, (though even granting that the honor is 
reserved for the Jewish nation, the objector should remember 
that, according to his own supposition, the Jew will then have 
become a Christian, and his people an integral portion of the 
Christian church,) but to the kind of instrumentality by 
which the world is to be evangelized. We will, however, 
proceed to show that the preaching of the gospel is to be 
made conducive to the conversion of the Jews themselves. 
"In that day," saith God, " will I raise up the tabernacle of 
David that is fallen, and repair the breaches thereof; and I 
will raise up its ruins, and I will build it as in the days of 
old ; that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all 
the heathen upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord 
that doeth this." * Now that this prediction relates partly to 
the conversion of the Jews, we have the authority of St. 
James, (Acts xv. 15 — 17 :) " And to this agree the words of 
the prophets; as it is written," f — and forthwith proceeds 
to quote this prophecy from Amos ; evidently taking it for 
granted that the ministry of the gospel would be the means 
employed by God for rebuilding the promised tabernacle 
— for that ministry was the only instrumentality which 
had then been appointed and employed for the purpose J — 
and only cites the prophecy to show that it was clearly the 
divine design that the Gentiles thus converted should be in- 
corporated in the same church with the Jews. 

That the vision of the valley of dry bones relates ultimately 
to times yet future, may be seen by a glance either at the 
context preceding or following. § And it can hardly be 
necessary to show how strongly confirmatory that vision is of 
the point before us. When the prophet had surveyed the 
dreary Golgotha, and beheld, in the withered fragments of 
mortality with which it was filled, what was, and what would 
be, the hopeless condition of his people, he was commanded 
to prophesy upon these dry bones, and to say unto them, " O 
ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord." And having de- 
livered to them that word, consisting of a promise of life and 

* Amos ix. 11, 12. 

t The quotation is not made literally either from the Hebrew or 
from the Septuagint, which also differs from the Hebrew, though 
only in letters of similar form. But this slight difference in no re- 
spect affects the question before us. 

$ Acts ii. 37 ; xv. 7, 14. 

§ Ezek. xxxvi. 24 — 28; and xxxvh. 14. 



ILLUSTRATED FROM PROPHECY. 131 

salvation, he is next commanded to prophesy to the wind, and 
to say, " Thus saith the Lord God, Come from the four 
winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain that they may 
live." In other words, having preached to the politically and 
spiritually dead the glad tidings of deliverance, and invoked 
on them the vital influence of the Spirit, a moral resurrection 
ensued, which filled the valley with life and activity. It fol- 
lows, then, that the same instrumentality will be made con- 
ducive to the conversion of the Jews, which will be employed 
with success for the conversion of the Gentiles — the ministry 
of the gospel of Christ. 

Accordingly, w r e might specify predictions which contem- 
plate the conversion of Jews and Gentiles alike, through this 
ministry, and which thus unequivocally foretell the coming 
salvation of the world. Such is the prediction to which we 
have already alluded for another purpose in the book of Amos. 
As quoted by the apostle James, (Acts xv. 16 and 17,) it evi- 
dently imports that the tabernacle of David is to be rebuilt 
expressly, " that the residue of men might seek the Lord." 
By the tabernacle of David can only be intended the Chris- 
tian church ; for what other tabernacle had then begun to be 
reared ? and yet the apostle speaks of the fact stated by Peter 
that " some time before God had chosen " him as the instru- 
ment by whose " mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of 
the gospel and believe," as a convincing proof that the prom- 
ised rebuilding of the spiritual fabric was commenced. And 
this church, he adds, is evidently instituted for the reception 
and salvation both of Jews and Gentiles. But in what con- 
ceivable manner can the church of Christ answer this high 
design, if not by the continued diffusion of the same blessed 
gospel to Jews and Gentiles alike? 

Such, too, is the tenor of the new covenant : ( Jer. xxxii. 
31 — 34 :) " Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will 
make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the 
house of Judah ; not according to the covenant that I made 
with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to 
bring them out of the land of Egypt ; 'which my covenant 
they brake, although I was a husband unto them, saith the 
Lord. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with 
the house of Israel ; after those days, saith the Lord, I will 
put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, 
and will be their God, and they shall be my people ; and they 
shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man 



132 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

his brother, saying, Know the Lord ; for they shall all know 
me from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the 
Lord ; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember 
their sin no more." On the authority of the apostle Paul, 
(Heb. viii. 8 — 13,) we learn that this new covenant is the 
dispensation of the gospel. The houses of Israel and Judah, 
therefore, to whom this dispensation is sent, cannot be sup- 
posed to be literally and exclusively the lineal descendants of 
Abraham, but his spiritual offspring ; for it is the peculiar 
glory of the gospel that, in contradistinction from the national 
and limited economy of the Jews, it bears an aspect of be- 
nignity equally to all mankind. Nor will any one contend 
that until the gospel is known universally, it will ever cease 
to be the duty of Christians to say to all around them, " Know 
the Lord ; " or that we have any reason to expect that the 
Bible will ever be superseded by a miraculous dispensation 
which shall flash divine illumination on the mind, and thus 
raise mankind above the use of means. The import of the 
prediction appears to be simply this, that when the reproach 
of indolence shall have been wiped away from the church, 
and every man shall have said to his neighbor, " Know the 
Lord," the reproach of ignorance shall be wiped away from 
the world ; for the Spirit of God will so graciously and uni- 
versally bless the means employed as to render their contin- 
uance comparatively unnecessary. So widely will the church, 
aided by the providential interpositions of her exalted Lord, 
have diffused the knowledge of salvation, and so abundantly 
will the great renewing spirit have crowned it with success, 
that efforts to diffuse it farther will be superseded : " for I 
will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no 
more." This amnesty from Heaven having been universal- 
ly preached and received, " the earth shall be filled with 
the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah, as the waters cover 
the sea." 

5. The allusions which we have made to the agency of 
the Holy Spirit, in the preceding paragraph, remind us of 
another class of predictions, in which the renovation of the 
world is ascribed prospectively to his transforming influence. 
We have just seen that the new covenant, which engages to 
impart the saving knowledge of God, is the gospel of Christ, 
and that, consequently, the promise knows no limitation of 
place or people. But, on comparing this prediction with a 
parallel prophecy, in Ezek. xxxvi. 25 — 27, which declares, 



ILLUSTRATED FROM PROPHECY. 133 

" Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be 
clean ; and I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to 
walk in my statutes," we learn that the agent employed to 
carry into effect the gracious purposes of the Christian econ- 
omy is the Holy Spirit. If the house of Israel is to experi- 
ence a spiritual resurrection, it is because the Spirit, whose 
emblem is the wind, will descend on the moral Golgotha, and 
replenish it with spiritual life. If the wilderness of the church 
is to be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field to be counted for 
a forest, it is not until the Spirit be poured upon us from on 
high. If the world is to be convinced of sin, the Spirit alone 
is appointed and adequate to the office. But the only medi- 
um through which he operates in the discharge of his office 
is that of the truth ; on which account he is designated, by 
Christ himself, " the Spirit of truth." The gospel is the 
only weapon he employs in his aggressions on the territories 
of darkness, and hence it is called "the sword of the Spirit." 
And when, by the successful employment of that instrument, 
he shall have convinced the world of sin, and have become 
the great animating spirit of mankind, that which he has 
promised to write on the general heart is, the "laws" of 
God, and the " ways " in which he will cause them to walk 
are, in his " statutes." So that, when at length he shall be 
poured out upon all flesh, and when, as the one soul of the 
whole, he shall have led them to crown the Savior " Lord of 
all," it will be found that no moral conquest has ever been 
achieved but by the agency of the Spirit, and that in achiev- 
ing it, no weapon has ever been directly employed but the 
I gospel — that, from first to last, the sword of the Spirit was 
never laid aside. 

Now, we think it will be found that under one or other of 
these five classes, every prophecy relative to the kingdom of 
Christ on earth may find an appropriate place. Whence it 
appears to follow, that, though its progress to the universality 
and glory which await it, may be attended by a series of 
providential judgments, that progress will be made, and that, 
ultimate gloiy attained, by the diffusion of the gospel directed 
and made efficient by the agency of the Holy Spirit. Let us 
" not, then, be moved away from the hope of the gospel," 
and expect that judgments and providential occurrences are 
to produce effects which are promised only to the diffusion 
of the word of God. That judgments will accompany and 
pioneer its march through the earth, as they ever have done, 
12 



134 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

we freely admit. But they are not to be regarded as forming 
an order of means distinct from the gospel economy, and 
superior to it. They wait on its steps. So vast is that econ- 
omy in its sweep and design, that it includes and appropri- 
ates every kind of agency ; presses into its service, as we 
saw in the preceding chapter, the angel of wrath, as well as 
employs the angel of mercy ; and lays under tribute all the 
revolutions of time, and all the dispensations of Providence. 
In those events, then, which may lead others to say, " Lo, 
here is Christ ;" or, " Lo, there is Christ;" and which may 
thus distract attention from present duty, and awaken hopes 
never to be realized, we are to recognize only a call to 
greater diligence, and to remember that if we would apply 
them to their proper purpose, we must study to render them 
subservient to the diffusion of his gospel. 

We admit, also, that, at times, the progress of the kingdom 
of Christ may be too slow for our impatience, and may seem 
to postpone its consummation to a hopeless distance. But 
let us remember that he can afford to wait. Had he any oc- 
casion to doubt the issue, he might be induced at times to 
precipitate the end. But " he seeth the end from the begin- 
ning " — sees it so clearly, and awaits it so confidently, that his 
patience emphatically announces the efficiency of his gov- 
ernment. 

And not only do impending judgments call for the dili- 
gence of the church, and proclaim the efficiency of the di- 
vine administration, — they indicate also the surpassing claims 
of that dispensation on whose account they are to be made 
to impend. Had the final sufficiency of the gospel economy 
been doubtful, we may warrantably suppose that many of the 
divine disclosures of coming terrors would have been gra- 
ciously withheld. Their unreserved disclosure is a certain 
pledge of its constant progress and eventual triumph. The 
eye of faith can only behold, in the awful pomp and grandeur 
of the future, the indication of its greatness and the cele- 
bration of its triumphs. 

IV. Now, if the conclusion to which we have come be 
scriptural, we may take it for granted that it will bear to be 
subjected to certain appropriate tests ; and that the result of 
such an ordeal can only tend to illustrate and confirm the truth. 

1. If it be a doctrine of prophecy, that the diffusion of 
the gospel is to be the grand instrument in the hand of God for 



ILLUSTRATED FROM PROPHECY. 135 

the conversion of the world, may we not expect that other 
departments of Holy Scripture will be found to contain 
allusions and statements corroborative of the doctrine? May 
we not expect, for example, that the apostles have left on 
record some indications, however incidental, that they inter- 
preted ancient prophecy in the manner supposed ? Accord- 
ingly, we find that such indications actually exist. The 
application which St. James makes of the prophecy of Amos, 
to which attention has already been called, is precisely on this 
principle, and might properly be regarded as supplying the 
legitimate key to all those figurative predictions of the gos- 
pel dispensation which employ language drawn from the Jew- 
ish economy. Had Isaiah predicted that Christ should " be 
given for a light to the Gentiles ? " " Lo, we turn to the 
Gentiles," said Paul and Barnabas, "for so hath the Lord 
commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the 
Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation to the ends of 
the earth." * Whence we learn, first, that they inferred the 
prophecy was to be fulfilled, and the world to be enlightened, 
by the publication of the gospel, for this was the only instru- 
mentality they employed. And, secondly, that so coincident 
in the^.r view was the spirit of the prophecy with the spirit 
of the apostolic commission, that they regarded the predic- 
tion as equivalent in meaning to a divine command to preach 
the gospel. 

Had the prophet Joel announced that during the " last 
days whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall 
be saved? " " How then shall they call upon him in whom 
they have not believed ? " inquires the apostle Paul ; t " and 
how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard ? 
and how shall they hear without a preacher ? and how shall 
they preach except they be sent ? " By putting the necessity 
of preaching the gospel in this interrogatory form, he would 
impress us in the most emphatic manner that there is no 
other conceivable instrumentality by which the Gentiles can 
be saved. 

And had " the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness " 
announced, " All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof 
is as the flower of the field ; . . . the grass withereth, the 
flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever " ? 
" This is the word," says the apostle Peter,J " which by the 

* Acts xiii. 46, 47. t Rom. x. 14, 15. t 1 Pet. i. 24, 25. 



136 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

gospel is preached unto you ; " plainly implying that, in 
opposition to the instability of all things human, the dispen- 
sation of the gospel is to last forever ; and that, in defiance 
of all the hostility of earth, it is to continue as the great and 
only principle of the world's regeneration. Were it possible 
that the present economy should be suspended or terminated 
before the world is saved, all hope of human recovery would 
perish. Man would behold the only rock on which his hope 
can anchor, sink in a shoreless and tempestuous sea. For 
amidst the ceaseless whirl and disappearance of every thing 
around him, the only ground of hope for the future which 
God himself has supplied consists, according to this apostle, 
in the sufficiency and perpetuity of the gospel of Christ. 

2. May we not expect to find that the cheering anticipa- 
tion of a world reclaimed by the sanctified diffusion of the 
gospel would lead " holy men of God " to give utterance to 
corresponding desires in prayer? The expectation is not 
disappointed. The psalmist prayed, * " That thy way may 
be known upon earth, and thy saving health among all na- 
tions ; " that the healing influence of divine revelation, like 
a heavenly current of vital air, might sweep over the spirit- 
ual sickness of the world, and impart to it health, and vigor, 
and happiness. And as he regarded the knowledge of God 
as the only remedy of the world's misery, so he appears to 
have taken it for granted that the prosperity of the church 
would be marked by the diffusion of that knowledge, and 
that such diffusion would be attended with the most happy 
results. " God shall bless us," he adds, " and all the ends of 
the earth shall fear him : " the leaven of his grace shall work 
from his church outwards till the entire mass of humanity 
be leavened ; his kingdom shall extend on every side till it 
embraces the world. But the language of Christ himself on 
this subject is conclusive, f " When he saw the multitudes 
he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, 
and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. 
Then saith he to his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, 
but the laborers are few ; pray ye therefore the Lord of the 
harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest." 
That this was not a duty binding only on those immediately 
addressed is evident, for the reason of the command is laid in 
the destitute condition of the multitudes. As long, there- 

* Psa. lxvii. t Matt. ix. 36—38. 



ILLUSTRATED FROM PROPHECY. 137 

fore, as it is true that any portion of mankind are perishing 
" as sheep having no shepherd," it will continue to be the 
duty of Christians to pray that shepherds may be provided 
for them. And as long as any disproportion remains between 
the vast harvest of souls to be gathered into the garner of 
Christ and the number of laborers employed, it will ever be 
imperative on the church to repeat the cry for an increase 
of Christian instrumentality. The language of Christ thus 
plainly implies that the harvest of the world is to be reaped 
by the agency of his people ; and that in proportion as that 
agency is increased under his superintendence, will be the 
extent of harvest saved. 

And still more to the purpose, if possible, is the language 
of Christ in his intercessory prayer : " Neither pray I for 
these alone, but for them also who shall believe on me 
through their word; that they all may be one — that the 
world may believe that thou hast sent me ; " leaving us to the 
necessary inference, first, that the only way in which the 
church is to look for additions, is by men being brought to 
believe the gospel ; for if any are to be converted otherwise, 
for such the Savior did not pray. And, secondly, that as 
often as such additions are made, they are to unite with the 
great body of the faithful for the conversion of others, and 
thus to proceed till the world is saved. 

3. May we not expect, further, that if the kingdom of 
Christ on earth is to be set up by means of his dependent 
but devoted subjects, the result will be attained gradually as 
opposed to suddenly ; and that, in order to correct and guide 
our expectations, scriptural intimations will be afforded that 
progressiveness will be one of the characteristics of the work ? 
Analogy, indeed, might lead us to expect this; for progress 
is one of the distinctive features of all the divine operations 
in nature and providence. But here, where the agency to be 
employed is human, it appears unavoidable. For the eminent 
piety of the individual Christian, and the union and devoted- 
ness of the collective church — the twofold element of in- 
strumental fitness requisite for the conversion of mankind — 
can only result from a prolonged course of divine discipline. 
Accordingly, the various imagery under which the dissemi- 
nation of Christianity is represented in the word of God, is 
remarkable for the uniform manner in which it preserves this 
characteristic of progressiveness. If Ezekiel beheld it in the 
living stream which flowed from the sanctuary, he saw that 
12* 



138 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

stream deepen and widen in its onward course, till " the 
waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not 
be passed over." If Daniel was instructed to recognize, in 
" a stone cut out without hands/' an emblem of the kingdom 
of Christ, the mysterious manner in which it became en- 
larged, and occupied province after province, till it " filled 
the whole earth," strikingly represented the growth of that 
spiritual empire which is destined to " break in pieces and 
consume all " hostile power, and to " stand forever." If the 
Sovereign himself of that kingdom selects appropriate em- 
blems of its progress, he finds them in the growth of the mus- 
tard-seed, and in the diffusive influence of the leaven. Not, 
indeed, that in its progress to perfection it will be entirely 
exempted from external shocks. Like the earthly empires 
which it is destined finally to absorb, its affairs may often 
approach a crisis which may appear to threaten its existence. 
But, true to the emblems by which our Lord represents it, its 
history will eventually exhibit the threefold characteristic, of 
original insignificance, constant though often imperceptible 
progress, crowned with ultimate greatness and universal 
power. 

4. But what appropriate test of the truth of the doctrine 
can we look for in Scripture without readily finding it? Is 
it an express command on the subject ? We possess it in the 
final command of Christ to his servants, to " preach the gos- 
pel to every creature." Is it a promise of divine assistance 
and success in obeying this command ? We have it in the 
promise which accompanies it, " Lo, I am with you always, 
even unto the end of the world," for the context implies and 
requires a promise, not so much of protection in danger, as 
of success in the accomplishment of the object proposed ; so 
that the command and promise combined may be regarded as 
the great missionary charter of the church for all time ; se- 
curing to his devoted servants, in every age, a measure of 
success proportioned to their zeal for his glory. 

V. It remains, then, in the next place, that we harmonize 
the whole with the chapters which have gone before. And 
here our course is too obvious to be mistaken. For, if the 
object of the first chapter was to unfold that Scripture theory 
of influence by which Christian is to be united to Chris- 
tian, and church to church, and the whole to be subordi- 
nated to the agency of the Holy Spirit for the recovery of 



ILLUSTRATED FROM PROPHECY. 139 

the world, we have seen that prophecy points to the same 
comprehensive arrangement for the same exalted issue. In- 
deed, that sublime prophecy of Christ which may be regarded 
as the sum of the whole of unfulfilled prediction relative to 
his kingdom on earth — " And I, if I be lifted up from the 
earth, will draw all men unto me " — may be regarded also 
as the sum of the theory of spiritual instrumentality. For 
not only does it predict the manner of man's recovery, by the 
attracting and saving influence of the cross, but it obviously 
implies that all the influences of the church are to be subor- 
dinated to that central power, till all the agencies and powers 
of earth are entirely in unison with it. And if the object of 
the second chapter was to show that the whole tenor of 
Scripture command and example on the subject, and the 
entire constitution of the mediatorial economy, including all 
holy power in heaven and earth, form but one loud practical 
call on Christians to unreserved consecration, — we have seen 
that prophecy is only the voice of that future which is in- 
cluded in the same economy, chiming in with the voice of 
the past and the present, and calling louder still for the same 
consecration. 

Are we tempted to apprehend, for instance, that the Chris- 
tian church exhausted its energies in its first days, and can 
never again expect to see them repeated ? Prophecy points 
us aloft to an emblem of the present, and, behold, an angel 
comes speeding through the vault of heaven, having the ever- 
lasting gospel to preach to all the dwellers on earth — telling 
us of facilities for its propagation yet to appear, of resources 
in the church yet to be developed, and of unexampled tri- 
umphs in the world yet to be won. Do we entertain a fear 
that the hostility of the world will cloud our prospect and 
arrest our progress ? In the visions of prophecy we behold 
another mighty angel casting a millstone into the sea, and 
crying, " Thus Babylon is fallen, is fallen ; " and another 
drying up the Euphrates of Mahometan power ; and another, 
binding Apollyon himself in the chain of God's decrees, and 
casting him down into his own pit. The mountain full of 
horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha, which bursts 
on the opened eyes of his servant, is tameness itself com- 
pared with the vision of the future to which prophecy points 
the church — all heaven marshalled and occupied in remov- 
ing every conceivable obstacle to the free and universal 
diffusion of the gospel of Christ. 



140 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

At no period of the past, probably, could our eyes have 
been opened to the reality of supernatural agency in the 
church, without beholding the sublime spectacle of " the 
angels of God ascending and descending" in its service, or 
arrayed in its defence. But, as if the active share they have 
hitherto taken in its affairs were as nothing when compared 
with that which devolves on them during " the time of the 
end," the successive scenes of Apocalyptic vision are crowded 
with their numbers and distinguished by their agency. Is it 
that as that time approaches its close, and events rush to their 
final result, they will take a more intense interest in the 
issue ? Or is it that the ranks of the church triumphant will 
be allowed to draw nearer to those of the church militant, 
and more frequently to mingle and make common cause, pre- 
paratory to their complete and everlasting juncture in heav- 
en ? However this may be, should not the prophetic vision 
of their winged activity and flaming zeal kindle the fire of a 
holy and consuming emulation in the church below ? "A 
great nation," it was lately said by a high political authority 
— " a great nation cannot have a little war." The church 
of Christ is militant ; and, considering the object of its con- 
test, the character of its spiritual allies and resources, the 
divinity of its Leader, and the grandeur of its destiny, it absorbs 
all the spiritual and created greatness of the universe ; and 
should it be satisfied with a little war ? Should not every blast 
of the Apocalyptic trumpet ring through the church as a sum- 
mons to universal action ? and every soldier of the Christian 
army demean himself as if an angel fought at his side, and in- 
finite issues were waiting the result ? Do we ask to look beyond 
the conflict, and see its final results? They have been seen; 
and the eyes that gazed on them, though closing in death, 
beamed and brightened with the reflected glory. They have 
been sung ; and they who sang them may be regarded as 
having lived for this as for their highest earthly end ; and 
while they sang, angels have hushed the music of their harps 
to listen to the strain. And still it is the office of prophecy 
to point out these results to the eye of faith. But what is the 
form in which we would see them ? for " in the visions of the 
Lord " they have been made to assume every hue of beauty, 
every character of greatness, every aspect of glory. Is it 
that of a stone instinct with life, and growing as it rolls by 
an invisible power, till it fills the earth 1 Prophecy conducts 
us to an elevation where we behold that mystic stone in 



ILLUSTRATED FROM PROPHECY. 141 

motion. Already has it attained the magnitude of a moun- 
tain, and attracts the eyes of the nations. Now it moves, 
and all things vibrate at its approach. Now it is arrested by 
an obstacle which appears insuperable ; but still its base 
expands, and its head towers higher. Again it moves, and 
the obstacle that opposed it is " ground to powder/' On- 
wards it rolls through islands and continents, scattering from 
its sides the seeds and fertility of a new creation, and pour- 
ing from its bosom the streams of the water of life. It 
touches another province, and is resisted on the very shores. 
But vain is the opposition. After the pause of a moment — 
the falling of idols and shrines announces that it is again in 
motion. Even while we have been describing its progress, it 
has continued to swell and enlarge. Like the Andes to 
South America, it is seen from every quarter ; and, with the 
light of an unsetting sun resting on its summit, and the 
nations collecting at its foot, it forms the only object of true 
sublimity the earth contains. 

Is it a temple I Now, it is only in the course of erection ; 
and we find ourselves standing amidst the apparent confusion 
of the surrounding materials ; while many of the laborers are 
away, preparing the " living stones; 5 ' and the great majority 
of the race are bowing at idolatrous shrines, and worshipping 
an unknown God. But prophecy takes us to a mount of 
vision, and, lo ! the stupendous fabric, ample as the earth, 
silently rising towards heaven ; the pediment placed on the 
columns, the edifice crowned with its dome, and all nations 
flowing unto it ! And while we are looking, they suddenly 
recover from their breathless admiration of its magnitude, 
proportions, and glories, to burst forth into that anthem of 
praise with which the universe and eternity are destined to 
resound. 

Is it the achievement of a conquest, and the erection of a 
kingdom ? " The God of heaven shall set up a kingdom 
which shall never be destroyed." When we read the history 
of an earthly power, we are constrained to admire the march 
of events bv which it attains to national greatness. As its 
population multiplies and its boundaries enlarge, battles are 
fought and victories won. Its times of excitement develop 
greatness of character, and that greatness of character im- 
presses its image on the times. But how effectually is all 
this glory eclipsed when brought into contrast with the 
progress of the kingdom of Christ ! Here the field is the 



142 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

world, while every object in it is a weapon, every being it 
contains is in action, and every issue depending is eternal. 
In this strife already kingdoms have been subverted, and 
generations have been engaged ! Who does not pant to gain 
a height whence he can look down and survey its progress ? 
To such a point does prophecy conduct us. Even while we 
look, the charge is sounded, and the onset made. Far and 
wide the conflict rages. Banner after banner joins the foe : 
tribe after tribe comes " out to the help of the Lord, to the 
help of the Lord against the mighty. " Victory seems to 
alternate from side to side. Now the soldiers of the cross 
give way, " as when a standard-bearer fainteth ; " and now 
raise a shout of joy as they plant their standard on some fallen 
fortress of Satan. Here "the Captain of salvation" sends 
them unexpected support; and there " his right hand teaches 
him terrible things." Leading them on from " conquering 
to conquer," opposition gradually slackens; " the armies of 
the aliens" are put to flight, or yield themselves willing cap- 
tives. The earth with joy receives her King ; and his king- 
dom of righteousness, peace, and joy embraces the world. 

Is the aspect under which we would look on the results of 
spiritual agency that of a new creation? " He that sat upon 
the throne said, Behold, I make all things new." Even now 
the spirit is moving on the face of the human chaos. Fiat 
after fiat goes forth ; and what light breaks in on the dark- 
ness of ages; what mighty masses of humanity are uplifting 
themselves in solemn majesty, like primitive mountains rising 
from the deep ; what more than verdant beauty clothes the 
moral landscape; how gloriously dawns the Sabbath of the 
world ! Where now is the midnight gloom of ignorance and 
idolatry? the desolations and misery attendant on sin ? We 
look, and listen ; but no reign of darkness, no habitation of 
cruelty, no sound of anguish remains ! The will of God is 
done on earth, as it is done in heaven ! The nations own 
no other law ; and hence their aspect is that of a happy fam- 
ily. The church aims at no other end ; and hence all her 
members are invested with the garments of salvation and the 
robes of praise. The world is bathed in the light of peace, 
and purity, and love. Inanimate nature itself partakes of the 
general joy. To the eye of renewed man it exhibits a beauty 
unknown before, and to his ear it brings lessons of surpassing 
wisdom. Trees wave with gladness, and the floods clap 
their hands; the light of the moon is as the light of the sun. 



ILLUSTRATED FROM PROPHECY. 143 

and the light of the sun is sevenfold. Over that scene, the 
morning stars sing together, and the sons of God shout for 
joy : while the Divine Creator himself complacently beholds 
it, and proclaims it good. 

Or, finally, would we contemplate the result of the whole 
in heaven 1 Then must we take up a position from which 
we can behold the closing scenes of time, and the opening 
grandeurs of eternity ; the coming of Christ, the pomp and 
ministry of his attendant angels, the resurrection of the dead, 
the awful solemnities of the judgment day. With the prophet 
of Patmos, we must mark the numbers of those who go away 
into everlasting life, and learn their songs ; we must try to 
estimate their joy when they cast their crowns at the feet 
of infinite love, and to multiply its amount by the ages of 
eternity. 

True, these are visions; but they are visions painted by 
the hand of God ; dear in every age to the church of God ; 
gazed on in death by the Son of God. Yes, then they were 
brought and set before him ; and such was the joy with which 
they filled him, that he endured the cross, despising the 
shame. He saw that stone advance ; that temple rise ; that 
kingdom come ; that new creation dawn : that beatitude of 
the redeemed in heaven — his grace the theme of every 
tongue, his glory the object of every eye. He saw of the 
travail of his soul, and was satisfied — his soul was satisfied. 
Even in the hour of its travail it was satisfied. What an 
unlimited vision of happiness must it have been — happiness 
not bounded by time, but filling the expanse of eternity ! His 
prophetic eye, even then, caught a view of the infinite result 
in heaven. His ear caught the far-distant shout of his 
redeemed and glorified church, singing, " Worthy is the 
Lamb that was slain!" And if we would do justice to our 
office as instruments for the salvation of the world, if we 
would catch the true inspiration of our work, we too must 
often cross, as he did, the threshold of eternity, transport 
ourselves ten thousand ages hence into the blessedness of 
heaven, and behold the fruits of our instrumentality there, 
still adding new joy to angels, and new tides of glory around 
the throne of God and of the Lamb. 

What other practical purpose, indeed, can these prophetic 
disclosures, at present, answer ? Or to what higher end can 
they be applied ? If the progress of the gospel, and its happy 
results, assume the appearance of a mountain ever moving 



144 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

onwards, and ever growing as it moves, displacing or crush- 
ing every obstacle, and filling the whole earth with its pres- 
ence, — what does it say to our inactivity, but that we must 
advance along with it, or be annihilated by it? And what, 
does it say to our fears of opposition and failure, but that we 
may give them all to the wind? If, for the same end, a tem- 
ple rises whose courts include a worshipping world, and 
whose incense of praise perfumes the universe, what is the 
language in which it addresses us but that of David in the 
prospect of erecting its ancient type, " And who then is will- 
ing to consecrate his service this day unto the Lord ? " If 
the church appear in conflict with the world, and triumphant 
over it, why are we allowed to look on the stirring scene but 
that w r e may catch the ardor of the Christian hero ; may 
mark how certainly every one that is not for Christ is against 
him, how necessarily inactivity in his cause produces the 
effect, and receives the punishment, of positive hostility; may 
be excited to endure hardship and to aspire to the glorious 
deeds of good soldiers of Jesus Christ? If the splendors of 
a new creation burst on our view, why is it but that we may 
feel a pang of solicitude for the groans and travails of the 
old ? Why, but that we may remember that we are living 
during the work-days of the mighty process ; and that he 
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath 
issued the fiat to us, " Let your light shine before men ; go 
into all the world and diffuse it " ? Each stage of the mate- 
rial creation was wisely adapted to prepare the way for that 
which succeeded. All its unfinished parts reciprocated their 
influence, pointed to that which was to follow, and craved 
and tended to a perfect whole. Light was given to the sun 
to be dispensed ; and he fulfilled the law of his being, and 
thus prepared the way for other and higher being. Had he 
been endowed with intelligence and responsible power, and 
had he, in the exercise of that power, retracted his beams 
and refused to shine, how enormous the guilt, how fearful 
the result ! In the process of the new creation, the darkness 
has passed away, and the light of salvation has come — light 
in the presence of which all material splendor is eclipsed and 
disappears. That light has been given to us in a sense 
which justifies its Author in saying, " Ye are the light of the 
world ; " and given to us with a solemn charge that we so 
dispense it as that the world may rejoice in its beams. To 
withhold our light, then, is to contract guilt of a magnitude 



ILLUSTRATED FROM PROPHECY. 145 

never to be computed. Or if, while we are asking, " What 
shall the end of these things be ? " we are answered by the 
sight of numbers without number waving their victorious 
palms, and by the voices of all these, joined by the hosts of 
the unfallen, in one stupendous concert of praise, — who does 
not hear, above this " sound of many waters," the voice which 
says, " Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a 
crown of life." " They that be wise shall shine as the bright- 
ness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteous* 
ness as the stars forever and ever." 

And is this the lofty practical purpose of prophecy ? And 
are these our inducements to proceed in the diffusion of the 
gospel? Then ought they not to be felt by us at this mo- 
ment with as much freshness and force as if they had opened 
on us now for the first time? Suppose this were literally the 
fact. Had prophetic visions, like those we have considered, 
never as yet been vouchsafed to us ; had the Christian church 
commenced its missionary operations simply in obedience to 
what it supposed to be the unuttered will of God ; had it 
assembled by its representatives to consult on the propriety 
of continuing those operations ; had a spirit of indolence or 
despondency seized it, and a disposition to wait for some 
divine intimation before it advanced any farther ; had it 
wrestled in prayer for such an intimation ; and if, while its 
members were thus " with one accord in one place," there 
had suddenly come " a sound from heaven as of a rushing 
mighty wind," filling all the place ; had Isaiah come and 
sung the glory of the latter days; had Daniel shown them 
the kingdom of the Messiah enlarging and absorbing all 
earthly power; had John recounted the scenes of Patmos; 
and had He who sent his angel there to interpret them, again 
appeared, commanding them to hasten away with his gospel 
into all the world, promising to be always with them, and 
assuring them of " floods " of spiritual influence yet to be 
poured out upon all flesh, — whose zeal would not kindle and 
burn ? Whose purpose would not catch a measure of divine 
greatness ? Whose lips would not be ready to exclaim, 
" Here am I, send me " ? As if such a vision had just trans- 
pired, let us aim to realize its inspiring motives ; and every 
Christian will be transformed, in effect, into a prophet, 
" crying, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths 
straight." 

Thus, if the first chapter explains the Scripture theorv of 
13 



146 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY 

Christian instrumentality, the second prescribes and makes 
it imperative ; and the third predicts and promises its tri- 
umph, in promoting the conversion of the world. If the first 
chapter states the plan by which all the holy influences of 
the past should have been collected, multiplied, and com- 
bined, the second exhibits and enforces the obligation of 
the present to that entire consecration which the plan sup- 
poses, and the third engages that such consecration shall 
certainly issue in the erection of the kingdom of Christ. 
And one passage of Scripture there is, which, if we mistake 
not, virtually includes, and practically applies, the whole. 
That passage we have already quoted as the divine postscript 
of the sacred volume. "And the Spirit and the bride say, 
Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that 
is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water 
of life freely." Here are at once the plan by which every 
holy agency is combined and put in requisition for the recov- 
ery of man ; the summons of the Lord of the church himself 
for every new agency as it comes into being to join in the 
great object for which the plan exists ; and — considering 
the position which the verse occupies as among the closing 
words of the Revelation — the practical application of all 
unfulfilled prophecy respecting that object. Taking the verse 
in connection with its contexts, its practical power becomes 
even more emphatic. " ' I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to 
testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the Root 
and the Offspring of David, and the bright and morning Star.' 
And as my person unites the wide extremes of divinity and 
humanity, my office invests me with all power in heaven and 
on earth, and my purposes of mercy require that angels, as 
well as men, should be employed in my service. Accordingly, 
one of them has been sent to instruct the churches in those 
mysteries of Providence whose accomplishment is to reach 
to the end of time. And, now, I myself appear, to close the 
prophecy, as I came to open it. Hear, then, the conclusion 
of the whole matter. I have opened a fountain of life for the 
perishing world. The Spirit and the church — God, angels, 
and holy men — are combined, in urging the. world to come. 
And as often as a single soul is prevailed on to obey the call, 
he is to consider himself bound, even though he can but 
feebly lift up his voice, and say, ' Come/ to unite with all 
who are already employed in publishing my invitations of 
mercy ; for whosoever will is welcome to partake. Such is, 



ILLUSTRATED FROM PROPHECY. 147 

simply, my final will ; such the practical application of all 
the predictions which my angel has now testified to the 
churches ; and such the sum of all that Scripture testifies on 
the subject, and of the means by which I propose to draw all 
men unto me. I testify, therefore, that if any man shall alter 
the words of the book of this prophecy, so as to disturb the 
legitimate and practical application which I thus finally and 
authoritatively give to them, I will visit him with signal marks 
of my most awful displeasure.'' 

How glorious the object which induces the Savior to ad- 
dress his church — the salvation of the world ! How simple 
the method by which he proposes to accomplish it ! How 
fearful his sacred jealousy that nothing should be said or 
done to impair its efficiency ! How strong the certainty 
implied in that jealousy that his end will be finally gained ! 
And how loud the summons of the whole to every Christian, 
and every Christian church, to unite and call the world to 
come! If all the orders of the church triumphant were per- 
mitted audibly to address the world, but were restricted to a 
single word, that word would be come. If all the invitations 
of the gospel, travailing as they do with the burden of infinite 
compassion, could be condensed and uttered in a single word, 
that word would be come. But the church of the day is the 
only organ through which that word can be uttered ; so that, 
were all its duties in reference to the world to be expressed 
in a single term, it would be to utter the invitation, come ; 
and if, in uttering it, all its tongues were to become vocal, 
and each of its members could pour into it all the passionate 
and holy emotion the heart of man has ever known, it would 
only be approaching the emphasis with which the invitation 
should be uttered. As if the church of the present day, then, 
had to retrieve the silence of all the past, and as if it had only 
a word in which to retrieve that silence, and a moment in 
which to utter that word, let it call, beseech, adjure, the 
world to come; and the Spirit himself would speak in its 
tones with an infinite energy ; and then, to the sublime an- 
nouncement of Christ, " Behold, I come quickly/' the church 
would be prepared to respond with joy, " Amen, even so, 
come, Lord Jesus." 



PART II. 



THE CLAIMS OF THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE ARISING 
FROM THE BENEFITS WHICH HAVE ATTENDED IT. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 

Now, if it be true that the Christian church is thus con- 
structed expressly to imbody and diffuse the influence of the 
cross, and if its full efficiency for this end depends, under 
God, on the entireness of its consecration to this office, we 
may expect to find that every page of its history illustrates and 
corroborates this truth. 

I. No law of nature can be obeyed without advantage to 
him who obeys it ; nor be violated, without avenging itself, 
and vindicating its authority. The same is true of the laws 
of the Christian church. And, accordingly, it might easily 
be shown by an induction of the great facts of its history, 
that in every age it has flourished or declined in proportion as 
it has fulfilled this primary object of its constitution. 

Need we repeat, for instance, that the period of its first 
and greatest activity was the season of its greatest prosperity ? 
that it expanded without the aid of any of man's favorite in- 
strumentality, learning, eloquence, wealth, or arms ? that it 
achieved its triumphs in the face of all these ? that its progress 
from place to place was marked by the fall of idol temples, 
and the substitution of Christian sanctuaries? and that God 
caused it to triumph in every place? And why all this, 
but because the church was acting in character, and fulfilling 
its office, as the representative of the cross to the world ? 



THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 149 

Had we witnessed the devotedness of its first days — subject 
though it was, even then, to many and grievous deductions 
— had we heard only of its early history and triumphant 
progress from land to land, how naturally might we inquire 
the date when the gospel completed a universal conquest; 
at what precise period it was that India embraced the faith 
of Christ ; how long it was before China was evangelized ; 
whether there was not a year of jubilee on earth when 
the gospel had been preached to the last of the heathens, 
and in what year the festival occurred. Alas for the church 
that these inquiries should sound so strange ; and alas for the 
world ! 

Need we remind the reader that the decline of Christian 
devotedness was the decline of Christian prosperity? We 
might indeed have inferred that such would be the result 
from the known constitution of the Christian church ; that 
if its relative efficiency depends on its entire consecration, 
the slightest diversion of its influence would be so much given 
to the very power which it was called into existence expressly 
to counteract ; and that if that influence should come to be 
so diverted to any considerable amount, the efficiency of the 
church would be comparatively destroyed, and itself be in 
danger of being vanquished by the counter influence of the 
world. And this, we repeat, is, substantially, the history of 
its long decline and fall. Physiologists inform us that life 
radiates, or acts from the centre outwards ; and that on ceas- 
ing to expand, it ceases to exist. And history affirms that na- 
tions flourish only while they continue to enlarge their bounds; 
that the tide of national prosperity no sooner ceases to flow 
than it begins to ebb. Whether these statements be founded 
in truth or not, they may find at least an obvious analogy in 
the history of the church. From the moment it lost sight of 
its expansive character, it began to lose ground to the world. 
The strength which should have been spent in conflict 
with foes without, was exhausted in fierce contentions 
within. When it ought to have been the almoner of God to 
the world, it became the great extortioner, absorbing the 
wealth of the nations. When it ought to have been the chan- 
nel of the water of life to the world, it became a stagnant 
reservoir, in which the very element of life corrupted and bred 
" all monstrous, all prodigious things." When it ought to 
have been the birthplace of souls, it was the grave of piety, 
so that in order to live it was necessary to leave it. And at 
13* 



150 THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 

the moment when it should have been giving law to public 
opinion, and have attained the mastery of the world, it was 
actually in alliance with it — the willing and accomplished 
agent of its vilest purposes. 

But as every departure of the church from its missionary 
design is sure to be avenged, so we may expect that every 
return to that character will be divinely acknowledged and 
blessed. Had we no facts at hand to prove this, the injunc- 
tions which our Lord gave to the seven Asiatic churches to 
repeat their first works, and his promises of prosperity 
if they did so, would lead us to infer it ; the uniformity of 
the divine procedure would warrant us to expect it; the very 
return itself, implying as it would a divine influence, would 
be a proof of it. But facts are at hand. The history of the 
Roman Catholic church demonstrates that even every ap- 
parent return to first principles has been, in so far, a return 
to outward prosperity ; that, as Machiavel remarks, the king- 
dom of the hierarchy would have been sooner at an end, if 
the reputation of the friars for poverty and activity had not 
borne out the scandal of the excesses and inactivity of those 
above them ; that no sooner have symptoms of returning vig- 
or appeared in one part of that church, than all the vital 
properties which it still contained have moved off in that par- 
ticular direction ; that, as if conscious of owing its continued 
existence to the working parts of its body, it has recently (in 
1814) repealed the order of Clement XIV., which restrained 
the aggressive activity of the Jesuits, and is already exulting 
in the ecclesiastical benefits arising from the change. And 
while facts domonstrate that activity will keep alive even a 
corrupt system, the history of every Protestant Christian 
church in Christendom, during the last fifty years, clearly 
proves that every return to spiritual devotedness is, in so 
far, a return to divine prosperity. If we ascertain the 
measure of holy activity in any church, we have ascertained 
the measure of its internal prosperity ; so that a person might 
at any time safely say, Tell me which branch of the Chris- 
tian church is the most scripturally active and aggressive in 
its spirit, and I will tell you which is the most prosperous. 

Before we proceed, however, to examine and exhibit the 
advantages accruing to the Christian church from its recent 
resumption, in part, of its original design, it will be proper 
to furnish a brief chronological sketch of the steps by which 
it has reached its present activity ; as well as a general survey 



THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 151 

of modern missionary labors. Thus prepared, we shall be 
the better qualified to enumerate and estimate the benefits 
with which those labors have been attended, both in subserv- 
ing the temporal welfare of men, and in promoting the higher 
objects and interests of the church. After which we shall 
endeavor to connect the whole with the preceding Part, and 
practically to apply it, by showing that our success has been 
fully proportioned to our efforts ; that advantages have flowed 
from our returning activity which nothing else could have 
conferred ; that the one design of God, in conferring that suc- 
cess, is to animate and redouble those efforts ; leaving us to 
infer that a full return in faith and prayer to the aggressive 
design of the Christian church would be a full return to its 
first prosperity. 

II. It is not till the eighteenth century that the era of 
Protestant missions can be said to have commenced. Not 
indeed that the missionary spirit had slumbered in the church 
from the apostolic age till then. Every intermediate century 
had witnessed the diffusion of, at least, nominal Christianity. 
Although as early as the third* century the original impulse 
given to the progress of the gospel had evidently declined, 
in the fourth we find Christianity existing in Persia ; become 
general in Armenia,! where it had been introduced as early, 
probably, as the second century ; carried from Armenia into 
Iberia ; rapidly spreading throughout Ethiopia, whither it 
had been conveyed by Frumentius ; and published, about the 
year 350, by Theophilus, at the instance of Constantine, in 
the south of Arabia. In 314, we find bishops from England 
present at the council of Arelate. How much earlier the 
gospel had entered Britain, it is impossible to state.f Proba- 

* About the middle of the second century, we find churches in 
Gaul, at Lyons and Vienna. (Euseb. Hist. Eccl. b. v. chap. 1.) In 
Africa, Carthage was the chief seat of the new religion ; where, ac- 
cording to Tertullian, (Apologet. chap. 37,) its professors were so 
numerous, that to extirpate them would be to decimate Carthage. 
In the East, at the same early period, Christianity was planted at 
Edessa. And about the year 190, according to Eusebius, (b. v. chap. 
10,) Pantaenus went from Alexandria to proclaim the gospel in India. 

t An alphabet and a translation of the Bible were introduced by 
Miesrob, about 410. 

X Those who would assign to the event an apostolic date, have 
little ground except their own wishes. That the apostle Paul visited 
England, rests on the ipse dixit of Jerome, a Latin father of the 
fourth eentury. 



152 THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 

bly, as Giesler* suggests, it was brought from Gaul early in 
the second century. Through the instrumentality of Ulphilas, 
the Visigoths now embraced Christianity ; and to him they 
were indebted also for an alphabet and a translation of the 
Bible. The Goths had probably received the gospel in the 
century preceding; for in the early part of this century we 
find a Gothic bishop at the council of Nice. 

The Jifth century was signalized by the nominal conver- 
sion of several of the German nations. In 432, Patricius, a 
Scotsman, induced the Irish to embrace Christianity. And 
in 496, the Franks assumed the Christian name, and induced 
the Alemanni to follow their example. In the sixth century, 
Christianity was professedly embraced by many of the barba- 
rous nations bordering on the Euxine Sea, and was more 
widely diffused among the Gauls. From about the year 565 
to 599, the Irish monk Columban labored with considerable 
success among the Picts ; f and in 596, Augustine succeeded 
in converting Ethelbert to the profession of the Christian 
faith ; whose example was immediately followed by his Anglo- 
Saxon subjects in Kent, and soon after by the other Anglo- 
Saxon kings of England. 

Ecclesiastical missionaries from England, Scotland, and 
Ireland, carried the gospel, in the seventh century, to Batavia, 
Belgium, and several of the German nations. Traces of its 
extensive propagation, by the Nestorian Christians of Syria, 
Persia, and India, are also to be found, at this period, in the 
remotest regions of Asia ; and, if the Mbnumentum Syro-Syn- 
icum is genuine, it obtained a footing in China about the year 
636. Tartary, parts of Germany, Friesland, and Saxony, 
were the principal additions to the domains of Christendom 
in the eighth century. In the ninth, Denmark and Sweden, 
Bulgaria and Moravia, professed subjection to the faith, as 
well as parts of Slavoniaf and of Russia. From Moravia, 
the gospel was carried into Bohemia. In the tenth century, 
the rays of Christian light began to enter Poland ; in Hun- 
gary, Christianity was made the national religion by a royal 

* Vol. i. § 37. The authorities for the statements above, when the 
works are not specified, are derived from the Ecclesiastical Histories 
by Mosheim, Giesler, and Neander. 

t Bede, Eccl. Hist. b. iii. chap. 4. 

X Cyril of Thessalonica, and his brother Methodius, invented the 
Slavic alphabet, and translated the Bible, and some Greek and Latin 
authors, into the Slavic tongue. Balbini Miscell. part i. 



THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 153 

decree ; and in Norway — where it had been first introduced 
from England — it was imposed by the severest measures 
From Norway it was carried into Iceland, the Faro and Shet- 
land Islands, and even to Greenland. 

The eleventh century saw Christianity established as the 
national religion of Russia, and records its wider diffusion 
in the East. Conquest and conversion had now come to 
mean nearly the same thing ; and hence, in the twelfth cen- 
tury, the political subjugation of Pomerania was followed by 
its nominal subjection to the Christian faith ; the island of 
Ruegen, long the stronghold of heathenism, was subdued, and 
its inhabitants baptized ; and the conquered Fins were com- 
pelled to submit to the same rite. The nominal church was 
still further enlarged, in the thirteenth century, by the forced 
submission of Prussia, Livonia, and many of the northern 
provinces ; as well as by the recovery of portions of the Sara- 
cenic territories in Spain. The fourteenth century was 
marked by the professed conversion of the Lithuanians, one 
of the last of the heathen nations of Europe which embraced 
Christianity; while the fifteenth was indelibly stained by the 
forced subjection of parts of the newly-discovered hemisphere. 
Towards the middle of the sixteenth century, Ignatius Loyola 
founded the order of the Jesuits ; one of whose grand objects 
was the propagation of Christianity among heathens and infi- 
dels by means of missionaries. Accordingly, the missions 
of the Jesuits form an important part of the history of their 
society. Xavier led the way into India and Japan ; and, 
within a very short period, the agents of this formidable body 
spread over South America, and penetrated into almost every 
part of Asia.* 

It is historically true, indeed, that many of the agents em- 
ployed, from century to century, in this wide diffusion of the 
gospel, were men whose wisdom, piety, and zeal, would 



* Concerning other papal missionary institutions, it may be suffi- 
cient here to notice the college de propaganda fide, founded at Rome 
in 1622, by Gregory XV., — and soon enriched with ample resources. 
Another college, — pro fide propaganda, — founded in 1627, by Urban 
VIII. , and very munificently endowed, appears to have been 
merged, in 1641, in the preceding institution. In 1663, Louis 
XIV. instituted the Congregation of Priests of the Foreign Missions ; 
while an ecclesiastical association founded the Parisian seminary 
for the missions abroad; and the apostolical vicars of these socie- 
ties were soon found in Siam, Tonquin, Cochin-China, Persia, &c. 



154 THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 

have adorned the apostolic age ; but it is notoriously known 
that its principal instrumentality consisted of worldly policy 
and martial power ; * and consequently that its immediate 
results were only territorial aggrandizement and nominal 
submission. Accordingly, as many of these conquests had 
been made by the sword, by the sword many of them were 
subsequently lost. Civilization itself, at one period, suffered 
a decline. Ages of darkness rolled over the church ; until 
Christendom, so far from being in a capacity to convert the 
world, stood itself in the most urgent need of substantial 
conversion. 

That glorious change, of which the signs and means had 
long been gathering, was the great event of the century of 
which we are now speaking. But, essential as the renovation 
of the church was to the conversion of the world, the direct 
effect of the reformation, properly so called, was confined to 
the church itself. Indeed, so far from immediately benefiting 
the world, its primary force was soon exhausted within even 
a small circle of Christendom. Nor has the line of demar- 
kation between Protestantism and Popery been materially 
moved during the two hundred and fifty years which have 
since elapsed. 

The seventeenth century was an age of missionary prepara- 
tion and promise. The close of the preceding century, in- 
deed, had witnessed the first attempt, on the part of Protes- 
tant Christians, to make a descent on heathenism. The 
distinguished honor of making it belongs to the Swiss. For, 
in 1556, fourteen missionaries were sent by the church of 
Geneva to plant the Christian faith in the newly-discovered 
regions of South America. f In 1559, a missionary was sent 
into Lapland, by the celebrated Gustavus Vasa, king of 
Sweden. Early in the seventeenth century, the Dutch, hav- 
ing obtained possession of Ceylon, attempted to convert the 
natives to the Christian faith. About the same time, many 
of the Nonconformists, who had settled in New England, 
began to attempt the conversion of the aborigines. Mayhew 
in 1643, and the laborious Eliot in 1646, devoted themselves 

* This has been ably shown, as far at least as the latter part of the 
period referred to is concerned, by the Rev. Dr. John Campbell, in 
his late excellent Treatise on " Maritime Discovery and Christian 
Missions." 

t Picteti Orat. de Trophgeis Christi in Fabricii Lux Salutaris Evan 
gelii, &c. p. 586. 



THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 155 

to this apostolic service. In 1649, during the Protectorate 
of Cromwell, was incorporated, by Act of Parliament, the 
" Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England." 
In 1660 the society was dissolved ; but, on urgent applica- 
tion, was soon restored ; and the celebrated Robert Boyle was 
appointed its first governor. The zeal of this distinguished 
individual for the diffusion of the gospel in India and America, 
and among the native Welsh and Irish ; his munificent dona- 
tions for the translations of the Sacred Scriptures into Malay 
and Arabic, Welsh and Irish, and of Eliot's Bible into the 
Massachusetts Indian language ; as well as for the distribu- 
tion of Grotius de Veritate Christiana Religionis ; and, 
lastly, his legacy of .£5400 for the propagation of Christianity 
among the heathens, entitle him to distinct attention. In 
1698 was instituted the " Society for promoting Christian 
Knowledge ; " whose objects comprise, to a certain extent, 
the labors of missionaries. Its missions, chiefly in the East, 
are subsequently associated with such names as Ziegenbalg, 
Gericke, and Swartz. And besides these incipient efforts to 
diffuse the gospel, glowing sentiments on the subject are to be 
found scattered through the sermons and epistolary corre- 
spondence of the age, which show that many a Christian heart 
was laboring and swelling with the desire of greater things 
than these. Still the century closed with witnessing little 
more than individual and unsustained endeavors. Had they 
been all suddenly arrested, only a very feeble call would have 
been made for their resumption. Like the repeated flights 
of the dove of the deluge, they served to show that there was 
shut up within the ark of the church a principle of activity 
impatient to be free, and which promised, when opportunity 
served, to traverse the globe. 

The eighteenth century began to fulfil that promise, and 
may be denominated the age of missionary association. In 
1701, the " Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in 
Foreign Parts " was chartered ; having in view exclusively the 
benefit of our plantations and colonial possessions. In 1705, 
Frederic the Fourth, king of Denmark, was induced, by one 
of his chaplains, to send two missionaries to Tranquebar, on 
the coast of Coromandel. One of these, Ziegenbalg, may be 
considered almost as the parent of the Eastern missions. 
The Society in Scotland for " Propagating Christian Knowl- 
edge " was instituted at Edinburgh in 1709. The philo- 
sophic Dr. Berkeley, then Dean of Derry, published his 



156 THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 

noble proposal for the erection of a college in the Bermudas, 
with a view to the conversion of the American Indians ; a 
plan in the prosecution of which he displayed a degree of 
self-denial, generosity, and devotedness, rarely equalled. 
The persevering Egede sailed from Bergen, in 1721, for the 
coast of Greenland. Influenced partly by seeing at Copen- 
hagen two Greenlanders who had been baptized by Egede, 
the persecuted Moravians commenced a mission to the same 
country in 1741. To their everlasting honor, and to the 
deep disgrace of the rest of the Christian community, it is to 
be remembered, that when they sent out their first mission- 
aries, their entire congregation did not exceed six hundred 
persons, and that of these the greater part were suffering 
exiles. Yet so noble and extensive were the exertions which 
they made for the evangelization of the heathen, and so 
abundantly were their unostentatious endeavors blessed by the 
great Head of the church, that within the short period of ten 
years their heralds had proclaimed salvation in Greenland, St. 
Croix, Surinam, and Rio de Berbice ; to the Indians of North 
America, and to the negroes of South Carolina; in Lapland, 
Tartary, and Algiers ; in Guinea, the Cape of Good Hope, 
and Ceylon. 

Brainerd entered the field of missionary labor in 1743. 
In the year 1784, at a Baptist Association held at Notting- 
ham, it was determined that one hour on the first Monday 
evening of every month should be devoted to solemn and 
special intercession for the revival of genuine religion, and 
for the extension of the kingdom of Christ throughout the 
world; hence the origin of Monthly Missionary Prayer Meet- 
ings. Wesleyan Methodism, being strictly missionary in its 
character, extended its operations to the West Indies in 1786. 
The " Baptist Missionary Society " was organized in 1792. 
The " London Missionary Society,'' on the principle of em- 
bracing all denominations, arose in 1795. The year follow- 
ing, the ." Edinburgh Missionary Society " was instituted. 
And in 1801 arose the " Church Missionary Society." 

From this brief outline, the progress of Christian associa- 
tion for missionary purposes during the last century is obvi- 
ous. Not only were societies organized to send forth and to 
sustain the missionary of the cross, but, unlike several pre- 
ceding organizations, they were instituted for this object 
alone. While, among the happiest signs which accompanied 
their formation, it may be remarked, that missionary informa- 



THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 157 

tion began to be regularly circulated in periodicals ; that ser- 
mons began to be addressed to large and interested audiences, 
exclusively on the obligations of Christians to diffuse the gos- 
pel ; that the people generally responded to the call by their 
willing contributions ; and, especially, that thousands of them 
met at stated times to implore the influence of the Holy 
Spirit on the new field of missionary labor ; — signs which 
indicated the approach of yet further association, and of 
greater enterprise, for the recovery of man. 

The missionary character which will belong to the nine- 
teentli century remains to be seen ; for one half of its sands 
have not yet run out. Were we required, however, to give a 
descriptive name to that portion of it which has elapsed, we 
should unhesitatingly denominate it the age of general Chris- 
tian association for the missionary enterprise. The union of 
Christians for this great object has yet to become universal ; 
but the interest felt in it now, compared numerically with 
that which existed at the close of the last century, may be 
said to be general. The object could not be suddenly with- 
drawn from the Christian world now, without occasioning a 
sensation of dismay which would thrill through the entire 
community, and which would raise the cry of tens of thou- 
sands for its return. Its presence has taken the rank of a 
new power ; and its absence would be felt as a great general 
want. 

The correctness of this representation will be seen from a 
further enumeration of the societies which the missionary 
enterprise has originated. The " Glasgow Missionary Soci- 
ety " commenced its operations soon after the establishment 
of the London Society. In 1808 was organized the " So- 
ciety for promoting Christianity among the Jews." In 1816, 
a Missionary Seminary was established at Basle ; the interest 
in which continuing to increase till 1821, the " German Mis- 
sionary Society " was then formed, or, as it is sometimes called, 
the " Evangelical Missionary Society. " In 1816, also, was 
formed the " General Baptist Missionary Society," in distinc- 
tion from that of the particular Baptist body of 1792. As 
early as 1799 a missionary spirit was awakened in various 
parts of Germany ; in consequence of which, first Elberfield, 
and then Barmen, originated societies for the contribution of 
funds to missionary and kindred institutions. In 1828, these 
societies united, and having been since joined by the Socie- 
ties of Cologne and Wesel, they together form the " Rhenish 
14 



158 THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 

Missionary Society." About this time, also, the " Netherland 
Missionary Society " commenced operations, and was associ- 
ated with the name of the enterprising Gutzlaff. And in 
1822 was organized the " French Protestant Missionary So- 
ciety." Nor should it be omitted, that the claims of the hea- 
then to Christian instruction have so far attracted the atten- 
tion of the society of Friends, that they have commenced a 
solitary mission to Western Africa. 

The Missionary Societies of America demand distinct re- 
gard. The land of the Mayhews and of Eliot, of Brainerd 
and of Sergeant, could never be entirely lost to the cause of 
Missions while their names continued to be revered, and their 
journals to be read. It was not, however, till the inspiring 
accounts of a Carey, a Vanderkemp, and a Buchanan, had 
been extensively circulated, that American piety became 
divinely awakened to its claims. With that awakening, the 
names of Mills, Judson, and their coadjutors, stand vitally 
connected. On these youthful students in divinity, the mis- 
sionary spirit had eminently rested ; and, having presented a 
memorial on the subject of Missions to the General Associa- 
tion of the Ministers of Massachusetts in 1810, the " Ameri- 
can Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions" was formed 
the same year ; and in the year following sailed the first 
mission sent from America to any foreign heathen land. In 
1814 was formed the " American Baptist Board of Foreign 
Missions." The " American Methodist Episcopal Mission- 
ary Society" followed in 1819. In the year ensuing, the 
" Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant 
Episcopal Church in the United States " commenced its oper- 
ations, and in 1831 the Presbyterian Church instituted the 
" Western Foreign Missionary Society." 

III. Now, in marking the principal circumstances which 
have accompanied this rapid accumulation of missionary 
organization within the last forty years, and which may be 
said to divide its brief history into important epochs, we may 
notice, — 

1. The formation of the Tract Society in 1799, and the 
origin of the Bible Society in 1804 — institutions which have 
proved the right arm of missionary activity, and increased its 
means of usefulness to a very considerable extent. 2. An 
important era for missions arrived when the fact was practi- 
cally and openly admitted, that no sect or denomination of 



THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 159 

Christians can sustain a reputation for Christian consistency 
without laboring to extend the gospel to pagan lands. 3. The 
accession of the American churches to the missionary enter 
pr'se was another and a glorious stage in its progress. 4. But 
if the adhesion of Christians to this object, in their denomi- 
nations and larger divisions, was important, equally impor- 
tant was it to be able to announce that the missionary spirit 
had descended to the individual members of the particular 
churches and congregations of which these denominations 
are composed, and had created for itself a deep, general, 
and permanent interest in the mass. 5. The formation of 
branch and auxiliary societies, by which the cause of mis- 
sions becomes located among a people, draws them gradually 
within the circle of its action, and lays all the piety which 
may exist among them under contribution for its advance- 
ment, is to be marked as another leading event. 6. The con- 
viction which has now generally obtained that the mission- 
ary service deserves the consecration of the greatest talent, 
and the most marked wisdom and piety, which the churches 
can supply, is a distinct indication of another stage in the 
progress which that service is making in public opinion, and 
is full of promise as to the character of its future agency. 
7. Another era in its history was the employment of native 
agency, and the project of instituting colleges abroad with 
an ultimate view to the education of that agency for more 
efficient service. If we are not intending to furnish the 
nations with an adequate supply of stated preaching from our 
own land, and for generations to come, the heathen must be 
rendered independent of Christendom for their religious in- 
structors as soon as possible. And in no other way can this 
be done than by taking the necessary steps for raising up a 
native ministerial agency. 8. And another important step in 
the progress of missions is the conviction which is beginning 
to obtain, not only that the Christian church must be brought 
to look more closely and practically at the object of evan- 
gelizing the earth, but that for this end it must act on a sys- 
tem. The more vast its projects, the greater the necessity of 
a fixedness of design, and a steady adaptation of means to 
the end. On this principle it is that an American Mission- 
ary Society has lately presented the outline of a plan for its 
own operations, the filling up of which, under the divine 
sanction, will plant four or five hundred stations in the more 
eligible parts of Africa and Asia, as well as thirty or forty 



160 THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 

theological seminaries, and require about twelve hundred 
ordained missionaries, and three hundred laymen, as physi- 
cians, printers, and teachers. Thus the most enlarged desires 
are beginning to assume that distinctness of plan which is es- 
sential to their wise and steady prosecution. 

IV. The following table [p. 161] contains a statistical sur- 
vey of our principal missionary societies, arranged alphabeti- 
cally,* and of their present operations. Other societies exist 
of a strictly missionary character ; but they are not here intro- 
duced, not because they are not equally meritorious with 
those named, but because they do not directly contemplate 
the conversion of the heathen. Such are the Colonial Mis- 
sionary Society ; the European Society for aiding the Diffu- 
sion of evangelical Christianity on the Continent of Europe ; 
and the Society for the Promotion of Female Education in 
the East. 

From this survey, and from other inquiries made by the 
writer, but to which the replies have not been sufficiently 
definite to justify insertion, it will be seen that there exist at 
present, in Britain and America, about f fourteen mission- 
ary societies ; of which seven may be denominated first-rate ; 
the remaining seven, were they blended into one, would not 
much more than equal a single society of the former class. 

That the annual income of these societies amounts to 
about c£5G5,000 ; of which about <£400,000 are contributed 
by British Christians, and the remainder by the Christians 
of America. 

That the number of missionaries at present in the field 
of labor is about fifteen hundred ; and that these missiona- 
ries occupy about twelve hundred principal or central sta- 
tions. 

That at these stations are to be found, in subordinate co- 
operation with the ordained missionaries from Britain and 

* Where a dotted line occurs in the table, it denotes that the re- 
sults under that head, if there are any, have not been ascertained. 

t Of course, these figures claim to be regarded only as an approx- 
imation to the truth. Even the income of one society, as compared 
with that of another, is to be understood with this qualification, that 
one society includes in its general accounts the pecuniary support 
which it receives for a particular field of labor; for the prosecu- 
tion of v/hich, perhaps, another Christian denomination maintains a 
distinct society. In this summary the three continental societies 
are omitted. 



THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 



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162 TEMPORAL BENEFITS OF 

America, about five thousand native and other salaried teach- 
ers, catechists, readers, helpers, and assistants of various 
kinds, engaged in the offices of education and religious in- 
struction. That about fifty of these stations have printing 
establishments. 

And that all the missions, combined, exhibit about 180,000 
converts in Christian communion ; and about 200,000 chil- 
dren and adults belonging to their schools. 

The only remark which it would here be in place to add, 
is, that these results have been attained gradually ; that, 
taking the collected reports of all the missionary societies 
for any given year, they will be found to exhibit an advance 
on the reports of the year preceding ; leaving us to indulge 
the hope that by the same blessing by which they have been 
progressively brought to their present state of enlargement, 
they will continue to report an annual increase of resources, 
activity, and usefulness, for an indefinite number of years to 
come. The practical benefits arising from missionary labors 
will next become the subject of distinct consideration. 



CHAPTER II. 



ADVANTAGES RESULTING TO THE HEATHEN FROM THE 
MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 



SECTION 1. 
TEMPORAL BENEFITS. 

At the commencement of the preceding chapter we re- 
marked, that such are the gracious arrangements and prom- 
ises of God, that every return of the church to its mission- 
ary design entitles it to hope for corresponding prosperity. 
Having taken a general survey of the manner in which Chris- 
tians have recently resumed their missionary vocation, we 
are the better prepared to look after the expected results of 
their activity. 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 163 

And here, the first fact which meets us on opening the 
inquiry is, that, independently of the direct and spiritual 
benefits at which we aimed, a host of minor but magnifi- 
cent temporal advantages have been gained, and which alone 
would have amply repaid all the cost of the missionary effort. 
This is as if, in attempting to estimate the benefits of the 
Savior's mission, a contemporaneous inquirer, who had only 
heard of him as a Teacher sent from God, and had only 
thought of spiritual results, should have had to make his way 
to those results through the thronging and grateful ranks of 
those who had been healed, and who insisted on presenting 
themselves first, as a part of the fruits of that mission. And, 
indeed, what was the character of Christ, but the character 
of his dispensation 1 and what was the design of his divine 
mission, but that it should be the source and type of all the 
good attending the march of his gospel through the earth ? 

Accordingly, we find, that even where Christianity has, 
for obvious reasons, produced but slender spiritual results, 
the inferior benefits which it has scattered have rendered its 
progress through the nations as traceable as the overflowing 
of the Nile is by the rich deposit and consequent fertility 
which it leaves behind. # This is a well-known subject of 
devout exultation in many of the inspired epistles. The apol- 
ogies of the Fathers prove it ; and the records of profane 
history, unintentionally, but abundantly, confirm it. Every 
city which the gospel visited presents itself in proof of its 
corrective influence ; and every nation we enumerated in the 
preceding chapter, stands forward as a witness to the same 
effect. It produced charity even in Judea, humility at Athens, 
chastity at Corinth, and humanity at Rome — cleansing her 
imperial amphitheatre of human blood, and evincing that her 
boasted civilization had been only a splendid barbarism. 
Softened by its influence, the Armenian, says Jerome, lays 
down his quiver, the Huns learn to sing the praise of God, 
the coldness of Scythia is warmed by the glow of faith, and 
the armies of the Goths carry about tents for churches.f 
Theodosius and Justinian took much of their codes from its 
inspired lips; and thus the gospel may be said to have read 
laws to the Visigoths and Burgundians, the Franks and Sax- 
ons, Lombards and Sicilians. On the Irish, as well as on 

* Vide Ryan's Effects of Religion on Mankind, passim. 
t Epist. lvii. 



164 TEMPORAL BENEFITS OF 

many other nations, it bestowed a written language, and 
made Ireland, for centuries, the university of Europe. It 
raised the German barbarian into a man: and elevated the 
wandering hordes of the Saxons, Marchomani, and Bohe- 
mians, into civilized communities. It approached the Dane, 
and he forgot his piratical habits ; and the Swede and the 
Norwegian staid within their own boundaries, and ceased 
to be a general terror. It called the Russians, Silesians, and 
Poles, to take rank among the nations ; won the Livonians 
and Portuguese from their idols ; and taught the Lithuanians 
a worship superior to that of reptiles, or of the sun. 

Virtue went out of it in every age, and wherever it came. 
The Roman empire was rushing to ruin ; the gospel arrested 
its descent, and broke its fall. Nearly all the nations of 
Europe which we have named, were sitting at a feast on hu- 
man flesh, or immolating human victims to their gods; it 
called them away from the horrid repast, and extinguished 
their unholy fires. The northern invasion poured a new 
world of barbarism over Christian lands ; the spirit of Chris- 
tianity brooded over the chaotic mass, and gradually gave to 
it the forms of civilized life. Where it could not sheathe 
the sword of war, it at least humanized the dreadful art. It 
found the servant a slave, and broke his chains. It found 
the poor — the mass of mankind — trampled under foot ; and 
it taught them to stand erect, by addressing whatever is di- 
vine in their degraded nature. It found woman — one half 
of the species — in the dust ; and it extended its protecting 
arm to her weakness, and raised, and placed her by the side 
of man. Sickly infancy, and infirm old age, were cast out to 
perish; it passed by, and bade them live; preparing for each 
a home, and becoming the tender nurse of both. 

Yes, Christianity found the heathen world without a single 
house of mercy.* Search the Byzantine Chronicles, and the 
pages of Publius Victor ; and, though the one describes all 
the public edifices of ancient Constantinople, and the other 
of ancient Rome, not a word is to be found in either of a 
charitable institution. Search the ancient marbles in your 

* There is ground to believe that the provision by some of the 
Greek states for those wounded, and for the children of those slain 
in battle, flowed from martial policy alone ; and that the Valctudina- 
rium of the Romans was only an infirmary for the sick servants and 
slaves of a great family. Si quis sauciatus in opere noxam ccpe- 
rit^in valetudinarium deducatur. — Col. xi. 1. Conf. Sen. Epist. 27. 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 165 

museums ; descend and ransack the graves of Herculaneum 
and Pompeii ; and question the many travellers who have 
visited the ruined cities of Greece and Rome ; and see if, 
amidst all the splendid remains of statues and amphithea- 
tres, baths and granaries, temples, aqueducts, and palaces, 
mausoleums, columns, and triumphal arches, a single frag- 
ment or inscription can be found " telling us that it belonged 
to a refuge for human want, or for the alleviation of human 
misery." The first voluntary and public collection ever 
known to have been made in the heathen world for a chari- 
table object, was made by the churches of Macedonia, for 
the poor saints in Jerusalem. The first individual known to 
have built a hospital for the poor was a Christian widow. 
Search the lexicons for interpreting the ancient Greek au- 
thors, and you will not find even the names which divine 
Christianity wanted, by which to designate her houses of 
charity — she had to invent them. Language had never been 
called on to imbody such conceptions of mercy. All the 
asylums of the earth belong to her. 

And be it remembered, that Christianity has accomplished 
much of this, under circumstances the most unfriendly to 
success. As yet it has had but a very limited influence even 
in what are denominated Christian countries. But yet, while 
bleeding herself at a thousand pores, she has saved whole 
tribes from extermination, and comparatively stanched the 
flow of human blood. Though a prisoner herself, and walk- 
ing in chains, she has yet gone through the nations, pro- 
claiming liberty to the captive, and the opening of the prison 
to them that are bound. Even when Popery had converted 
her creed into a libel on her name, it yet contained truths 
which eclipsed the wisdom of Greece, and which consigned 
the mythology of Rome to the amusement and ridicule of 
childhood. Even there where her character was most mis- 
understood, so high had she raised the standard of morals, 
that Socrates, the boast of Greece, would have been deemed 
impure ; and Titus, the darling of Rome and of mankind, 
would have been denounced as a monster of cruelty. When 
disfigured to a decree which would have made it difficult for 

DO 

her great apostle to have recognized her, yet, like him, she 
went about " as poor, yet making many rich, as having noth- 
ing, and yet possessing all things." Herself the victim of 
universal selfishness, she yet left on every shore which she 
visited everlasting monuments that she had been there, in the 



166 TEMPORAL BENEFITS OF 

hospitals and edifices of charity which lifted up their heads, 
and in the emollient influences which stole over the heart of 
society. 

We are warranted in affirming, then, that, as far as the 
temporal welfare of man is concerned, the history of the past 
demonstrates that even the worst form of Christianity is pref- 
erable to the very best form which heathenism ever knew 
Who has not heard, for instance, of the atrocities which men 
called Christians committed in her abused name in South 
America? Yet even there, though her pretended priesthood 
was an army, and though they hewed their path w T ith the 
sword, her humanizing influence was quickly felt. No lon- 
ger are wives buried with their deceased husbands in Congo ; 
nor do the aborigines of Florida quench the supposed thirst 
of their idol with human blood. At Metamba they no longer 
put the sick to death ; nor sacrifice human victims at funer- 
als in Angola. No longer do the inhabitants of New Spain 
offer the hearts of men in sacrifice, nor drown their children 
in a lake to keep company with the idol supposed to reside 
within it. 

But why do we speak of other lands ? Britain itself owes 
every thing, under God, to the influence of the gospel. The 
cruelties of Rome did not humanize, nor the northern super- 
stitions enlighten us. The missionary who first trod our 
shores found himself standing in the very temple of Druid- 
ism. And wherever he turned, he heard the din of its noisy 
festivals, saw the obscenity of its lascivious rites, and beheld 
its animal and human victims. But Christianity had marked 
the island for its own. And although its lofty purposes are 
yet far from being worked out on us, from that eventful mo- 
ment to the present, the various parts of the social system 
have been rising together. Even when most at rest, its influ- 
ence has been silently penetrating the depths of society. 
When most enfeebled and corrupted itself, its authority has 
been checking the progress of social corruption, rendering 
law more protective, and power more righteous. When most 
disguised and repressed, its wisdom has been modifying our 
philosophy, and teaching a loftier system of its own. A 
Howard, sounding and circumnavigating the ocean of human 
misery, is only an obedient agent of its philanthropy. A 
Clarkson and a Wilberforce have only given utterance to its 
tender and righteous appeals for the slave. A Raikes, a Bell, 
and a Lancaster, have simply remembered its long-neglected 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 167 

injunction, " Suffer little children to come unto me." While 
all its Sabbaths, Bibles, and direct evangelical ministrations, 
are only the appropriate instrumentality by which it has ever 
been seeking to become the power of God to our salvation, 
and preparing us for the office to which Providence is now 
distinctly calling us, to be the Christian ministers and mis- 
sionaries of mankind. 

To have predicted, then, at the commencement of modern 
missions, that the diffusion of the gospel would be attended 
with the diffusion of, at least, temporal good, would only 
have been making the past the prophet of the future. Let us 
proceed to inquire how far such a prediction would have been 
verified by actual results. 

1. Judging from the costly price at which civilized nations 
have purchased distinction, it would seem that it is no small 
advantage to be known. Now, there are some tribes of the 
human family which are indebted to Christian missions for 
their discovery. The first vessel known to have visited the 
islands of Mitiaro, Mauke, and Rarotonga, was steered by a 
missionary of the cross ; while other islands, though dis- 
covered, had not been visited, or, though visited, had remained 
almost entirely unknown, until sought out by Christian per- 
severance and compassion ; so that, hereafter, when they 
shall have acquired historical importance, they will have to 
record that they were called from their original obscurity by 
the servants of Him who came to seek and to save that which 
was lost. 

2. As the primary object of the Christian missionary is to 
bring the heathens, to whom he is sent, under the influence 
of the gospel, it is important that, if they have been accus- 
tomed to roam from place to place, they should renounce their 
wandering habits, and adopt a settled abode. And, hence, 
one of the first and necessary consequences of a desire to 
hear a " man of God," is, a disposition to locate themselves 
in his vicinity. This is the first step of their transition from 
a horde of the wilderness to a civilized community. But 
this has been the almost uniform effect of the introduction of 
the gospel among such a people. Who does not here think 
of the dwellings of Nonanetum rising around Eliot in the 
wilderness ? of the twelve Indian villages of Zeisberger ? of 
Brainerd's Indians coming from the far-off forks of the Dela- 
ware to his beloved Crossweeksung ; killing a supply of deer 
that they might be able to listen to him for days together 



168 TEMPORAL BENEFITS OF 

without interruption ; and then " building themselves little 
cottages " up to " his own door " ? and of the Esquimaux 
coming from Okkak, as far as to the Moravian settlement at 
Hopedale ? " where/ 5 said the missionary, " our congrega- 
tions are blooming like a beautiful rose." Not more certainly 
was the 'erection of the tabernacle in the wilderness a signal 
for the Israelites to pitch their tents around it, than the suc- 
cessful introduction of the gospel among a roving and un- 
civilized tribe has led to their settlement. The North Ameri- 
can Indian emerging from his filthy wigwam, the Green- 
lander leaving his burrow in the snow, — compared with which 
the den of the bear itself is inoffensive, — and the Hottentot 
coming in from the bush, have alike proceeded to prepare for 
themselves comfortable abodes. The New Zealander may be 
seen making bricks, and the South Sea Islander burning 
lime, for the erection of a house. " The traveller through 
the Cherokee settlements," says the Report of the Methodist 
Episcopal Mission in America for 1835, " observing cottages 
erected, regular towns building, farms cultivated, the Sabbath 
regularly kept, and almost an entire change in the character 
and pursuits of the people, is ready to ask with surprise, 
' Whence this mighty change?' Our only answer is, Such 
is the effect of the gospel. Here is a nation at our door, our 
neighbors, of late remarkable for their ferocity and ignorance, 
now giving the most striking evidence of the utility of mis- 
sionary exertions." 

And " instead of their [the South Sea Islanders] little con- 
temptible huts along the sea-beach, there will be seen a neat 
settlement, with a large chapel in the centre, capable of con- 
taining one or two thousand people ; a school-house on the one 
side, and the chiefs or the missionary's house on the other, and 
a range of white cottages, a mile or two long, peeping at you 
from under the splendid banana-trees, or the bread-fruit 
groves ; so that their comfort is increased, and their character 
is elevated." * 

3. But when the wanderers of the wilderness or of the 
plain become localized, their erection of permanent dwellings 
supposes many a previous step of instruction and improve- 
ment ; their new condition entails on them wants which they 
never knew before ; and labor becomes necessary in order to 

* Evidence on the Aborigines, before a Committee of the House of 
Commons in 1833-35, p. 307. 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS, 



169 



supply them. Accordingly, all the more useful among the 
arts and trades of civilized life are to be found accompany- 
ing the progress of the gospel. In the schools of Sierra 
Leone, the girls are taught to spin cotton, and the boys to 
weave.* Even the New Hollander may be seen ploughing 
and reaping for the missionary, and planting corn, melons, 
and pumpkins for himself.f The journal of a missionary 
catechist at New Zealand records his daily superintendence 
of the natives while occupied in the various labors of the 
blacksmith's shop, of house-building, and of the plough. 
The testimony of Lieutenant Stockenstrom, lieutenant-gov- 
ernor of the eastern division of the Cape of Good Hope, im- 
ported, that the land at Kat River was cultivated, " to the 
astonishment of every body who visited it, in proportion to 
the strength and means of the Hottentots." J " At the sta- 
tion where I live," said the head of the Moravian Missionary 
Institution in South Africa, " one half of the population sub- 
sists by working at mechanical arts — cutlers, smiths, joiners, 
turners, masons, carpenters, shoemakers, tailors, and so on." § 
"We have ploughing, wagonmakers, and shoemakers, and 
other tradesmen amongst us," said Andrew Stoffel, a Hotten- 
tot ; "we can make all those things except a watch, and a 
coach." || The following is a concise enumeration of the 
useful arts, the animals, and the vegetable productions, which 
have been introduced by the missionaries into the various 
stations they have occupied in the South Seas : — 



USEFUL ARTS. 

Smith's work. 

House-building. 

Ship-building. 

Lime-burning. 

Turning. 

Sofa, chair, and bed- 
stead making. 

Growth and manu- 
facture of tobacco. 

Sugar-boiling. 

Printing. 



VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS. 

A variety of valuable es- 
culents. 

Pumpkins, melons, sweet 
potatoes, &c. &<c. 

Oranges, lemons, and 
limes. 

Pine-apples. 

Custard apples. 

Coffee. 

Cotton. 

Indigo. 



ANIMALS. 

Goats. 
Sheep. 
Horses. 
Asses. 
Cattle, &c. 
Pigs, into sev- 
eral islands. 
Turkeys. 
Geese. 
Ducks, &c. 
Fowls.1T 



4. When the missionary has thus put a newly-reclaimed 
people in the way of providing for their immediate wants, it 



* Evidence on the Aborigines, p. 89. 

t Idem, p. 110. $ Idem, p. 353. § Idem, p, 355. 

IT Williams's Missionary Enterprise, pp. 578, 579. 

15 



Idem, p. 360. 



170 TEMPORAL BENEFITS OF 

might be supposed that the next step would be to devote 
every moment of their leisure, which could be spared from 
their religious instruction, to their mental education. Hav- 
ing taught them the alphabet of civilization, the alphabet of 
their own language would seem naturally to follow. But 
perhaps the language is without an alphabet. In many in- 
stances, the modern missionary , like an Ulphilas, a Patricius, 
and a Cyril of earlier times, has given to the people a written 
language. From the time when the "Indian Evangelist" 
reduced the Massachusetts Indian language* to form, in 
1660, down to the present day, when the New Zealander, 
the CarTre, and the Rarotongian, are just beginning to learn 
the written signs of their respective tongues, this is a benefit 
which the Christian missionary has often conferred. With 
scarcely any aid besides that which they derive from the oral 
and uncertain explanations of the natives, the missionaries of 
a single American society have constructed the framework 
of, at least, seven languages from the foundation ; forming 
the alphabet, determining the orthography, arranging the 
grammar, and presenting the whole in a written form ; and, 
where circumstances have required, other societies have been 
proportionally useful in conferring on the heathen the same 
benefit. Qualified missionaries are employed at the present 
time in reducing to a written form the Australian, Foul ah, 
Mandingo, and other languages. In this way, Christian mis- 
sions are incidentally laying the foundation for all the litera- 
ture which the millions of these various nations may ever 
possess. Besides which, the treasures contained in the 
Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French, German, and English lan- 
guages are in the process of transmission into all the written 
and unwritten tongues which our missionaries employ. 

5. The next step in the civilizing process, is education. 
As the missionary does not address the heathen in his own 
name, but in the name of God, and as the book containing 
the will of God is made ready to their hands, what more nat- 
ural than a mutual anxiety that they should be able to consult 
it ? Accordingly, as soon as possible, every mission opens 
its infant, youth, and adult schools ; and the natives generally 
both hasten to it themselves, and send their children. About 
two hundred thousand children and adults are now receiving 

* Of which Mather said that the words looked as if they had been 
growing ever since the confusion of Babel. 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 171 

instruction through the agency of missionaries; perhaps 
nearly an equal number have already enjoyed it. Here may 
be seen the infant learner, who, but for the timely interposi- 
tion of the Christian missionary, would have been immolated, 
as all his brothers and sisters had been ; and there may be 
seen the hand that would have done it, tracing the alphabet. 
Here, the parent is seen learning of his child ; and there, the 
female is seen imparting instruction, where, once, her pres- 
ence would have been deemed pollution, and have incurred 
her destruction. Who does not prospectively recognize in 
many of those youthful pupils the future instructor of other 
tribes, and the missionary to distant lands ? Who does not 
see in many of those schools the promise of theological 
seminaries, and the germ of future colleges ? And in the 
press, with which many of them are connected, who does 
not recognize the sure prevention of a return to barbarism, 
and the foundation of national cultivation and of future men- 
tal greatness? 

6. Education tends, in a variety of ways, to create a de- 
mand for the institution of laws. By teaching them to read, 
a people obtain a knowledge of the customs and advantages 
of law in civilized lands; by enlightening their minds, such 
knowledge shows them the evils which they have suffered 
from the want of law ; by quickening their moral nature, it 
awakens a craving after a rule to walk by ; and, by thus 
humanizing them, it prepares them to conform to the law 
enacted. Hence the missionary, as their only adviser and 
friend, is often called on to become, in effect, their lawgiver. 
The Cherokees of North America,* and the Caffres of the 
Little Namaquas, have their respective codes. f The Sand- 
wich Islands recognize the authority of law. Formerly, in 
the Island of Rarotonga, " the king, when a thief was caught 
upon his premises, would have him cut up, and portions of 
his body hung in different parts of the farm on which the 
depredation had been committed. But when Christianity 
was embraced by them, they saw immediately that such san- 
guinary proceedings were inconsistent with the benign spirit 
of the gospel, and they inquired of us what would be done in 
England, and what was consistent with the Christian pro- 
fession. We informed them that there were judges in Eng- 
land, and all such offences were tried regularly, and particular 

* Evidence on the Aborigines, p. 51. t Idem, p. 157. 



172 TEMPORAL BENEFITS OF 

punishments awarded. They immediately said, - Will it not 
be well for us to have the same ? ' and, after months' and 
months' consultation with them, and explaining those things 
to them, a very simple code was drawn up." * The Tahitians 
have also a simple, explicit, and wholesome code of laws, as 
the result of their imbibing the principles of Christianity. 
This code of laws is printed and circulated among them, 
understood by all, and acknowledged by all, as the supreme 
rule of action for all classes in their civil and social relations. 
The laws have been productive of great benefits;! and of 
these benefits all the Society Islands are more or less par- 
takers. To the practical working of these laws, impartial 
and ample testimony has been borne as to " one of the great- 
est temporal blessings they have derived from the introduction 
of Christianity." $ By making the New Testament the basis 
of their civil enactments, they have placed their government 
under the divine protection, and laid a foundation for lasting 
national prosperity. 

7. To say that the gospel has erected a standard of moral- 
ity among those of whom we are speaking, is only to state 
what is clearly implied in the paragraph preceding ; for it is 
not until men are becoming a law unto themselves, that they 
begin to think of enacting rules for their own conduct, or for 
that of others. To say that they have been rendered moral, 
compared with their idolatrous fellow-countrymen, would be 
to fall far short of the truth ; in many respects their example 
is a loud lecture on morality to the civilized Briton. Not in 
vain has the Bible said to the Sandwich Islanders, " Thou 
shalt not commit adultery. 5 ' Having enacted a law in 1825, 
prohibiting the sins which violate that law, and having ex- 
tended it to foreign visitors as well as to themselves, "the 
rage of the former, who came in the ships in the autumn of 
the year, was such, that they could scarcely be restrained 
from acts of the most violent outrage." " Once," write the 
missionaries, "we thought a single couple would be exposed 
to insult from the natives ; now the natives are a defence 
from lawless foreigners, to whose violence we are all ex- 
posed." § Not in vain has the gospel said to the New Zea- 
lander, " Let him that stole steal no more." " Ten years ago, 
a person scarcely dared to lay a tool down, as it was almost 

* Evidence on the Aborigines, p. 300. 
t Idem, p. 180. \ Idem, p. 182. § Idem, pp. 42— 44. 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 173 

sure to be stolen ; now, locks and bolts are but little used, 
and but little needed ; working tools are safe, although lying 
in all directions. " * Not in vain for the Hottentot and the 
Tahitian has the Bible denounced drunkenness. The former 
has petitioned from Kat River that no canteens might be 
allowed in the settlement ; the latter has enacted a law which 
prohibits trade with ships which come for the purpose of 
introducing ardent spirits ; and, indeed, the Island of Po- 
rapora is the only one that retains the use of ardent spirits in 
the whole of the Tahitian and Society Island group.f The 
Honorable Justice Burton informed Doctor Philip of the 
Cape of Good Hope, after a circuit tour, that he had made 
three journeys over the colony as a circuit judge ; that, 
during these circuits, he had had nine hundred cases before 
him, and that only two of these cases were connected with 
Hottentots who belong to missionary institutions, and that 
neither of them was an aggravated case. On a comparison 
of the population at the missionary stations with that of the 
rest of the colony which was under the jurisdiction of the 
circuit court, the fact stated by the judge marked the propor- 
tion of the crimes as one to thirty-five.$ 

8. If, in some instances, heathen tribes are indebted to 
Christian missionaries for their discovery, in still more, prob- 
ably, have they been saved, by the same agency, from extinc- 
tion. A competent witness testifies, in his " Evidence on the 
Aborigines, 75 § that " wherever the gospel has not been intro- 
duced among the Indians of Upper Canada, there the process 
by which the diminution of their numbers is effected is stead- 
ily going on ; but wherever Christianity has been established, 
there a check has been opposed to the process of destruction ; 
and on the older stations, among the tribes that have been 
the greatest length of time under the influence of Christian 
principles, there the proportion has begun somewhat to in- 
crease." The missionary establishments have " unquestiona- 
bly done much good," said Major Dundas, || " in bringing 
together, and in keeping together, the wrecks of the Hottentot 
nation." The depopulation of the Sandwich and South Sea 
Islands, since the time of their discovery by Captain Cook, is 
truly fearful. His estimate of the number of the inhabitants 

* Evidence on the Aborigines, p. 119. 
t Idem, pp. 351, 301, 276. 
% Tract Society publication. 
§ P. 145. || Idem, p. 347. 

IS* 



174 TEMPORAL BENEFITS OF 

was probably much too high ; but, within the memory of the 
missionaries, the prevalence of wars of extermination, of 
infanticide, and the introduction of European diseases and 
vices, had reduced the population of some of the islands from 
thousands to hundreds, and of others from hundreds to tens. 
But the Christian missionary " stood between the dead and 
the living, and the plague was stayed." Since Christianity 
has prevailed among the people, there has been a reaction ; 
the population is supposed to have increased about one fourth. 
Thus the gospel came between them and annihilation.* 

9. Missionaries frequently act the part of mediators between 
chiefs and tribes at variance, and have thus been the means 
of arresting many a sanguinary conflict, and of reconciling 
the parties to each other. On some of these occasions they 
volunteer their mediation, bring the hostile chiefs together, 
and continue to exert their peaceful influence, till a friend- 
ship is effected. But so well is their peace-making character 
known, and so highly is it esteemed, even by those natives 
who have not embraced Christianity, that they are often sent 
for to interpose ; and, generally, from the moment they come 
between the parties at issue, the breach is considered to be 
as good as healed. Even when the hostile ranks have been 
confronted, with thousands on a side, ready at a word to rush 
in savage and deadly encounter, the missionary has pitched 
his tent of peace between, and, for days together, has gone 
from tribe to tribe, and from chief to chief, till they came to 
a resolution of peace. f 

10. But, if the Christian missionary confers a benefit on 
heathen tribes in preventing wars of extermination, and saving 
them from extinction, still more does he serve them, accord- 
ing to the ordinary mode of calculation, by rescuing their 
mental character from undeserved ignominy, and restoring 
them to the rank of our common humanity. A false philo- 
sophy, while complacently monopolizing all the genuine 
philanthropy to be found in the world, has yet most strangely 
evinced its philanthropy by consigning a large proportion of 
the species to neglect and extermination, as irreclaimably de- 
generate and savage. The advocates of such a philosophy, 
while affecting this superiority over their brother savage, must 

* Evidence on the Aborigines, pp. 51, 292. 

t Missionary Enterprises, p. 457; and Evidence on the Aborigines, 
pp. 15, 211—218. s ' 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 175 

have forgotten that those very airs are among the certain 
marks of an imperfect civilization; that they are shared by 
every untutored tribe on the face of the earth ; and that 
there was a time, in the history of Britain, when the ances- 
tors of those very philosophers were deemed by similar phi- 
losophers at Rome to be too stupid even for slaves — when 
Cicero could advise his friend Atticus not to obtain his slaves 
from Britain, " because they are so stupid, and utterly inca- 
pable of being taught, that they are unfit to form a part of the 
household of Atticus.' ' But that which the gospel effected 
for us, its modern missionaries are accomplishing, under God, 
for the slandered heathen of the present day. The Moravian 
missionaries soon discovered, when the gospel began to affect 
the Greenlander, that his previous condition had been one, 
not of hopeless stupidity, but of utter ignorance ; that in pro- 
portion as the influence of grace prevailed on his heart, his 
torpid mind awoke and came forth ; that the dawning of 
spiritual light, like the return of the sun after the one long 
night of his own winter, ended both his brutishness and his 
vice, and gave him a mind and a heart together.* The Hot- 
tentot, through all his varieties, is found as eager for instruc- 
tion, and as capable of cultivation, as the European himself.f 
The liberated negro child at Sierra Leone is soon found 
worthy of being prepared to become a native teacher ; while 
the enslaved adult negroes have abundantly proved their 
equality, at least, to those who have held them in bondage. 
" Your missionaries have determined that ; they have dived 
into that mine from which we were often told no valuable ore 
or precious stone could be extracted ; and they have brought 
up the gem of an immortal spirit, flashing with the light of 
intellect, and glowing with the hues of Christian graces." { 
Even the native children of New Holland, placed by common 
consent in the lowest grade of humanity, are found in no 
degree inferior in intellect, or ability to learn, to children in 
general in an English school. § How mighty must that influ- 
ence be which can thus disinter the mental faculties, and 
quicken into quivering sensibility what appeared to be a mass 
of unconscious brutality ! And how beneficent that agency 



* Carne's Lives of Eminent Missionaries, vol. i. p. 247. 
t Evidence on the Aborigines, pp. 350 — 353 ; also p. 104. 
t Rev. R. Watson on the Religious Instruction of the Slaves. 
§ Evidence on the Aborigines, p. 107. 



176 TEMPORAL BENEFITS OF 

which takes whole tribes and nations, whom a worldly phi- 
losophy had struck out from the family of man, and exalts 
them, through grace, into the family of God ! 

11. Christian missions have proved eminently beneficial 
in affording protection to the oppressed, and in procuring lib- 
erty for the enslaved. At some stations, the mere presence 
of the missionary has proved a salutary check on the lawless 
barbarities which Europeans had been accustomed to commit 
on the aborigines. At others, he has obtained magisterial 
interference in behalf of the oppressed, and has secured their 
rights in defiance of their cruel taskmasters. In one place, 
he has guarded against the danger of domestic slavery by in- 
ducing the natives themselves to prohibit it by law. In 
another, he may be seen hastening with presents to ransom 
captives taken in war. While in other instances, the influ 
ence of that gospel which he has preached has induced the 
converted natives voluntarily to break the chain of their 
slaves, and to let them go free.* 

But the great triumphs of Christian missions, in ameliorat- 
ing the state of the slave colonies, and liberating the slave, have 
yet to be recorded. No one acquainted with the history of 
negro emancipation will for a moment question that these 
happy results were hastened and effected by Providence, 
through the moral influence of Christian missions. The 
ordinance issued at the Cape, in 1828, by the provisions of 
which the Hottentots and other free persons of color within 
the colony were placed on a civil and political equality with 
the white colonists, was the undeniable effect of missionary 
perseverance and fidelity. The publication of " Researches- in 
South Africa," and the proclamation of this African bill of 
rights, — this Magna Charta of the Hottentot nation, — stand 
together in the relation of cause and effect. 

The great Act, which enacted that, " from the first of 
August, 1834, slavery be utterly and forever abolished through- 
out the British colonies, plantations, and possessions abroad," 
was doubtless the result, chiefly, of missionary influence. 
By bringing to light the real condition of the slave — his 
brutal ignorance and heart-rending wrongs — the religious 
part of the community had long been preparing for some 
great movement in his behalf. By the frantic and murder- 

* Evidence on the Aborigines, pp. 5 — 21, 30 — 35 r 157, 238, 247. 
Missionary Enterprises, p. 325. 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 177 

ous violence with which some of the planters assailed the 
men who were engaged in his instruction, the people of 
England were ultimately aroused to petition Parliament for 
the overthrow of the system. And by the influence of the 
compassion thus awakened, and which stopped not to count 
the ransom for suffering humanity, the nation generously cast 
twenty millions at the feet of the slaveholder, as the price of 
the negroes' deliverance. Thus humanity triumphed through 
religion, and religion through her missionaries. Nor have 
their services in the cause of the negro been less important 
since the Act of Emancipation took effect. On the recorded 
testimony of colonial governors, we learn, that to their inval- 
uable influence partly it is to be ascribed that the colonies 
have been brought so safely as they have through the succes- 
sive stages of the critical transition. And from what we 
know of the past, we may confidently add, that not only have 
their known character and activity, as the friend of the negro, 
tended to check his distrust and impatience, and to inspire 
him with confidence, but that the same causes have equally 
tended to secure for him, what otherwise he would not speed- 
ily have obtained, the unperver^ed operation of the Act which 
treats him as " a man and a brother. 5 ' 

12. But colonial slavery is only one of a long catalogue 
of evils which Christianity has blotted out by the hand of 
her missionaries. If the tapu, one of the chief obstacles to 
New Zealand civilization, has been abolished, it is to be 
ascribed entirely, under God, to " the agency of mission- 
aries." * If habitual idleness, one of the most prolific evils 
of savage life, has been extensively replaced by honest indus- 
try, the change has been effected entirely by the new wants 
and habits which Christianity has created, and by missionary 
instruction in the arts of civilization. If an order in Council 
has been issued for the suppression of the pilgrim tax in India, 
it was obtained by the expression of Christian opinion in 
this country, and that opinion was sustained and made active 
by the representation of our missionaries there. If a canni- 
bal would now be sought for in vain, or an altar stained with 
the blood of human sacrifices, throughout nearly the whole 
nation of Polynesian Asiatics, the glory of the happy change 
redounds entirely to the influence of the gospel. If the fear- 
ful trade of the " infant-killer" has ceased to exist throughout 



•& j 



Evidence on the Aborigines, p. 218. 



178 TEMPORAL BENEFITS OF 

the same vast region, and if the Ganges no longer receives 
its accustomed number of new-born babes, it is because the 
gospel is going through the world restoring a heart to the 
human bosom. If the Indian suttee no longer receives its an- 
nual holocaust of 30,000 widows, it is because its unholy 
fires have been dimmed, and all but extinguished, by the 
rising of the Sun of righteousness. If Brahminism is rap- 
idly falling into discredit, and the cruelties and immolations 
practised in honor of the Indian Moloch greatly diminished, 
Christianity has been mainly instrumental in producing the 
change. In a word, if populous islands and regions of the 
earth have been lately wrested from the empire of idolatry, 
and brought under the happy influence of an enlightened 
civilization, the change has been effected by the blessing of 
God on the diffusion of the gospel. 

13. Among the most distinguished benefits accruing to 
the heathen world from Christian missions — so distinguished 
that we deem it worthy of separate notice — is their elevating 
effect on the moral character and social rank of icoman. 
Wherever our missionaries have gone, they have found that 
degradation is the condition of the sex, and insult and suffer- 
ing its reward. Of the Chinese women, Gutzlaff writes, they 
are the slaves and concubines of their masters, live and die 
in ignorance, and every attempt to raise themselves above the 
rank assigned them is regarded as impious arrogance.* As 
might be expected, suicide is a refuge to which thousands of 
these ignorant idolaters fly.f And a large proportion of their 
new-born female children is destroyed. Even in Pekin, the 
residence of the emperor, about 4000 are annually murdered; \ 
and to ask a man of any distinction whether he has daughters, 
is a mark of great rudeness. § The condition of the Hindoo 
women is, if possible, worse. " Any thing," says Bishop 
Heber, || " is thought good enough for them ; and the rough- 
est words, the poorest garments, the scantiest alms, the most 
degrading labor, and the hardest blows, are generally their 
portion." And yet China and India alone are at this mo- 
ment holding two hundred millions of immortal beings in 
this abject condition ! If there are those who can account 



* Preface to Voyages, p. xxiv. 

t Abeel's Appeal to Christian Ladies. 

X Abeel. § Gutzlaff. 

|| Twenty-fourth Report of B. and F. S. S. p. 39. 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 179 

for the entailed slavery of the negro race only by resolving 
it into a divine malediction, where is the curse recorded 
which can account for the social slavery and wretchedness 
of one half of the human race ? For be it remembered that 
divine Christianity is the only system which denounces the 
enormity. Mahometanism adds its authority to that of Hin- 
dooism and Budhism, in excluding woman, by system, from 
instruction, and in pronouncing her soulless and irreclaima- 
bly wicked. But if such be the verdict of civilized heathen- 
ism, what may we expect to be her doom in uncivilized lands ? 
To be prohibited from certain kinds of food which are re- 
served for the men and the gods, and from dwelling under 
the same roof with their tyrannical masters, are among the 
lighter parts of their fate. Well might the female barbarian 
of North America look on the coming of Eliot as that of an 
angel.* Well might the CafFres denominate a missionary 
" the shield of women." f While every other system makes 
her the butt of their cruel shafts, the effect of the gospel is to 
provide her with a shield. By exalting marriage, and de- 
nouncing licentiousness in all its forms, it provides for her 
the honorable relation of a wife, and the comforts of a home. 
By discountenancing polygamy, it dries up unnumbered 
sources of domestic discord, and challenges for her the un- 
divided affections of her husband. By extinguishing infanti- 
cide, and inculcating the parental duties, it multiplies the 
ties of conjugal endearment, and increases her importance 
to the welfare of her family. And by developing her mind, 
and exalting her character, it adds respect to domestic love, 
and renders her influence useful and lasting. All this Chris- 
tianity has done. Ten thousand happy Polynesian, African 
and negro homes attest it. And the operations of the " So- 
ciety for promoting Female Education in China, India, and 
the East," are calculated, by the divine blessing, to increase 
their number. 

Now, that the benefits which we have enumerated are 
among the results of Christian missions, is become an estab- 
lished and familiar fact. To ask for any vouchers of the 
truth of our representation, beyond those which we have 
given, would betray ignorance of the passing events of the 
day, and an anxiety for something more and other than the 

* Came, vol. i. p. 19. 

t Evidence on the Aborigines, p. 323.. 



180 TEMPORAL BENEFITS OF 

truth. "These things have not been done in a corner/ 
The narratives of impartial witnesses have recorded them. 
A succession of officers in the army and navy have borne 
spontaneous testimony to them. They are registered in 
colonial reports, and taken for granted in government 
despatches. Our commerce wafts us to them ; and the 
reclaimed idolaters themselves have come amongst us, as the 
representatives of their fellow-countrymen, to exhibit in their 
own persons the value of the missionary enterprise. Even 
the anti-supernaturalist, who regards their conversion as the 
natural result of their contact with missionary morality and 
intelligence, does not hesitate to ascribe it to missionary in- 
strumentality. So important an element of civilization has 
that agency become, that the continental literati and savans — 
the Balbis and KiefFers, the JoufTroys, Remusats, and Klap- 
roths — regard it with admiration. So conspicuous are its 
triumphs, that Rome itself, in the spirit of envy or emulation, 
is essaying to achieve the same with her enchantments. And 
so demonstrable and valuable is its practical bearing on the 
temporal welfare of man, that the highest municipal body in 
the kingdom has given it aid ; " not as forming a precedent 
to assist merely religious missions, nor as preferring any sect 
or party, but to be an extraordinary donation for promoting 
the great cause of civilization, and the moral improvement of 
our common species;" while the inquiries of our legislature, 
in seeking " Evidence on the Aborigines," have established 
the fact, that Christian missionaries are the great agents of 
civilization, and rank amongst the most distinguished bene- 
factors of mankind. 

The social and moral advantages, then, which the mis- 
sionary enterprise has conferred on the heathen, are before 
the world. And had the good which it has imparted termi- 
nated here, who does not feel that it would have amply repaid 
the cost and toil with which they have been attended ? What 
vast tracts has it rescued from barbarism, and with what 
creations of benevolence has it clothed them ! How many 
thousands, whom ignorance and selfishness had branded as the 
leavings and refuse of the species, if not actually akin to the 
beasts that perish, are at this moment rising under its foster- 
ing care; ascribing their enfranchisement, under God, to its 
benign interposition ; taking encouragement from its smiles 
to assume the port and bearing of men ; and, by their acts 
and aspirations, retrieving the character and dignity of the 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 181 

slandered human form! When did literature accomplish so 
much for nations destitute of a written language ? or educa- 
tion pierce and light up so large and dense a mass of human 
ignorance? When did humanity save so many lives, or cause 
so many sanguinary " wars to cease " ? How many a sorrow 
has it soothed ; how many an injury arrested ; how many an 
asylum has it reared amidst scenes of wretchedness and op- 
pression for the orphan, the outcast, and the sufferer ! When 
did liberty ever rejoice in a greater triumph than that which 
missionary instrumentality has been the means of achieving ? 
or civilization find so many sons of the wilderness learning 
her arts, and agriculture, and commerce ? or law receive so 
much voluntary homage from those who but yesterday were 
strangers to the name? By erecting a standard of morality, 
how vast the amount of crime which it has been the means 
of preventing ! By asserting the claims of degraded woman, 
how powerful an instrument of social regeneration is it pre- 
paring for the future ! And by doing all this by the principle 
and power of all moral order and excellence — the gospel of 
Christ — how large a portion of the world's chaos has it 
restored to light, and harmony, and peace ! 

Had human philosophy effected such results as these — or 
only a thousandth part of them — how soon would her image 
be set up, and what multitudes would fall down and worship ! 
By leaving a single esculent on an island, Kotzebue plumed 
himself with the assurance of having secured its ultimate 
civilization. 

But great as are the benefits which we have enumerated, 
and most of which can, in a sense, be seen, and measured, 
and handled, we venture to affirm that those which are at 
present comparatively impalpable and undeveloped are greater 
still. The unseen is far greater than that which appears. 
The missionary has been planting the earth with principles ; 
and these are of as much greater value than the visible bene- 
fits which they have already produced, as the tree is more 
valuable than its first year's fruit. The tradesman may take 
stock and calculate his pecuniary affairs to a fraction ; the 
astronomer may count the stars ; and the chemist weigh the 
invisible element of air ; but he who in the strength of God 
conveys a great truth to a distant region, or puts into motion 
a divine principle, has performed a work of which futurity 
alone can disclose the results. At no one former period 
could either of our missionary societies have attempted to 
16 



182 TEMPORAL BENEFITS OF 

"number Israel" — to reduce to figures either the geograph- 
ical extent or the practical results of its influence, without 
having soon received, in the cheering events which followed, 
a distinct but gracious rebuke. How erroneous the calcula- 
tion which should have set down the first fifteen years of 
fruitless missionary labor in Greenland, or the sixteen in 
Tahiti, or the twenty in New Zealand, as years of entire fail- 
ure ! when, in truth, the glorious scene which then ensued, 
was simply that which God was pleased to make the result 
of all that had preceded — the explosion, by the divine hand, 
of a train which had been lengthening and enlarging during 
every moment of all those years. So that, were the whole 
field of missions to be suddenly vacated, and all its moral 
machinery at once withdrawn, we confidently believe that 
the amount of temporal good, arising from what has been 
done, will be much greater twenty years hence than it is at 
present. 

Who can say, for instance, to what extent the entire fabric 
of idolatry is undermined ? remembering the fact that the 
Sandwich Islands abandoned their gods at the mere rumor of 
Tahiti's conversion, and before a Christian missionary had 
approached them ; although that report had to be borne 
across the waters nearly three thousand miles. Who can 
walk to the circumference of the moral circle of which a 
missionary station is the centre, and say, here its useful influ- 
ence will be exhausted ? For the gospel moralizes even when 
it does not convert ; and where it does not so much as induce 
the abandonment of idolatry. It checks unnumbered evils, 
unveils the deformity of vice, restores the lost influence of 
shame, and thus gradually diminishes crime, and raises the 
moral tone of society : — even the hemlock and the night- 
shade grow less rankly where the sun shines. Who can cal- 
culate the effect of emancipation in the West Indies, on the 
servile population of the Union ? " The sympathies between 
the colonial inhabitants of the two regions," says an Ameri- 
can authority, " must become more and more extensive. No 
legal enactments, no armed cordon around Florida, can pre- 
vent it. News of the progress of human freedom will fly 
faster than civil proclamations. Human sympathies cannot 
be blocked up by negotiations, nor by ships of war. Ru- 
mors of this sort will fly on the winds of heaven." 

This, too, is the prospective view to be taken of that munifi- 
cent gift, by which the nation charmed the dragon slavery 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 183 

from its victims. True, its immediate purpose may, in some 
respects, have partially failed ; but not one of all its higher 
ends. Twenty millions of enactments against slavery would 
not have made a return to that enormity so impossible as that 
gift has done. Twice twenty million hearts beat quicker in the 
cause of humanity than ever. More than that number of be- 
nevolent impulses have been sent thrilling through all the de- 
partments of social improvement. We meant it for our coun- 
try — it has touched the heart of the world. We meant it to 
take full and final effect on a day at hand — it will operate till 
the last day. We meant it for a given number of slaves — in 
an important sense, it has bought the freedom of mankind. 
And thus nothing good is lost. The feeblest act for God, not 
by any inherent strength of its own, but by being linked on to 
some great principle of the divine government, is carried on 
through all time, and, for aught we know, through all worlds. 
And who does not foresee that, owing materially to mis- 
sionary influence, the whole system of British colonization, 
as far as it affects the aborigines, is likely to be essentially 
improved? By exposing the fact that for ages we have been 
imitating the Spanish and the Portuguese in the worst parts 
of their policy, and in the blackest features of their national 
character ; that while we have been priding ourselves on 
our superior humanity and civilization, we have been laying 
whole regions desolate, and consigning entire tribes to de- 
struction ; Christian missions have aroused the national indig- 
nation, and thus taken the first step towards remedying the 
evil. While by pointing out the only legitimate method of 
colonization ; by perseveringly imploring, and, through the 
public voice, demanding, in the name of outraged justice and 
humanity, that this method shall be adopted; and by contin- 
uing to report every fresh violation of it, they are powerfully 
tending, under God, to base our future intercourse with the 
aborigines on righteousness and peace, and thus to promote, 
on a most extended scale, the temporal welfare of myriads of 
mankind. 



184 RELIGIOUS BENEFITS OF 



SECTION II. 

THE RELIGIOUS BENEFITS AND SPIRITUAL RESULTS OF CHRIS- 
TIAN MISSIONS AMONG THE HEATHEN. 

Great as are the social and moral blessings which Chris- 
tian missions have been the means of imparting to heathen 
lands, they have only, in a sense, been imparted incidentally, 
by aiming at greater things than these. The great design of 
Christ in coming into the world was to erect his cross, and 
the supreme object of his missionary is instrumentally to dis- 
pense its blessings — blessings as much superior to those 
which relate only to the present, as the nature and duration 
of the undying soul surpass the body which enshrines it. 
While he rejoices, therefore, in being made the medium of 
imparting temporal benefits, he values them chiefly as the 
signs and the means of yet greater good. He remembers 
that, important as they may be in the class of blessings to 
which they belong, they are only accidental to religion — the 
dust of that diamond which constitutes her crowning gift — 
the shed blossoms of that tree of life of which his office is to 
dispense the immortal fruit. 

In enumerating the benefits glanced at in the last section, 
then, we have only been ascending the steps of that temple 
which it is the design of the missionary enterprise to erect. 
And although it is allowed us to sing our " song of degrees " 
as we ascend them, our great business is within. Here 
angels join us, and mingle their joy with the grateful tears of 
myriads of reclaimed penitents. Here the Redeemer himself 
sees of the travail of his soul, and is satisfied. 

1. But in order that we may be the better prepared to 
estimate this spiritual result, let us begin with the first reli- 
gious benefits of Christian missions, in effecting an extensive 
abolition of idolatry. If there existed a region on the face 
of the earth where, in defiance of the law which commands, 
" Thou shalt have no other gods before me," the Divine Law- 
giver himself were forgotten, and demons placed on his 
throne ; where the moral darkness had for ages been deepen- 
ing and concealing abominations, till diabolical ingenuity 
itself had exhausted its hideous devices ; and where a cloud 
stored with the bolts of divine displeasure had been conse- 
quently collecting and impending, ready every moment to dis- 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 185 

charge a tempest of destruction, would he not be an instru- 
ment of immense good who should hold up a light in the 
midst of that darkness, by which the deluded worshippers 
should see that they had been sacrificing to devils, not to 
God, and before which those demons should fly ? Such 
regions there are. The entire empire of polytheism is a 
realm of diabolical dominion. It assembles its votaries only 
to blaspheme the name of God ; erects its temple only to 
attract the lightning of the impending cloud on their devoted 
heads ; calls them around its altars only that in the very act 
of supposed atonement they may complete their guilt; and 
gives them a pretended revelation only " that they should 
believe a lie." And such an angel of mercy is the Christian 
missionary. To say nothing, at present, of the decline of 
idolatry in India, and of the conversion of some of the tribes 
of Africa and North America, where now, we ask, is the 
idolatry which lately revelled in the Sandwich, the Marque- 
san, the Paumotu, the Tahitian and Society, the Austral, the 
Hervey, the Navigators, the Friendly Islands and New Zea- 
land, and in all the smaller islands in their respective vicini- 
ties? Idolatry still reigns in Western Polynesia, and still 
steeps its victims in blood and guilt : what benevolent power 
has swept the curse from Eastern Polynesia ? The mission- 
ary of the cross has been there, proclaiming that " there is 
one God and one Mediator between God and man, the man 
Christ Jesus" — and about ninety islands have " cast their 
idols to the moles and to the bats," and about 400,000 idola- 
ters have become the professed worshippers of the only living 
and true God. We admit, indeed, that the mere abandon- 
ment of idolatry is very remote from scriptural conversion to 
God. But if the inspired history exhibits the Almighty in 
one continued contest with idolatry, is it nothing to find, 
though it be only about the fifteen hundreth part of his infat- 
uated foes lay down their arms, and virtually acknowledge 
their guilt ? If the mere casting out of a demon was a benefit 
to the dispossessed which called for his ardent and lasting 
gratitude, is it nothing for whole demoniac communities to 
have the fiend of idolatry, whose name is Legion, cast out of 
the body politic, and to be now found " clothed, and in their 
right mind " 1 The renunciation of a false religion is at least 
one step towards the adoption of the true one. 

2. If we knew of a region where the sun of knowledge — 
if ever it shone there — set long ages ago ; where the absence 
16* 



186 RELIGIOUS BENEFITS OF 

of truth has not merely left the mind vacant, but in actual 
possession of destructive errors, like a deserted mansion 
converted into a den for robbers and murderers ; and where 
truth is not only lost to man, and fatal error is in full posses- 
sion, but where man is actually lost to the truth — lost to the 
power of even intellectually apprehending it when first pre- 
sented to his mind ; and if there existed a process by which 
that darkness could be pierced, those errors exploded, and 
this power restored, would not he be a great benefactor who 
should attempt and conduct it to a successful issue? That 
region is heathenism ; that process is education ; and that 
benefactor the Christian missionary. Visit, in thought, the 
200,000 youthful and adult scholars sitting at his feet to re- 
ceive instruction, and imagine what all those immortal beings 
would have been if left to themselves. A considerable num- 
ber would doubtless have been destroyed in infancy, had he 
not gone to their rescue ; while, for the rest, the past would 
have been all a fable, the future a blank, and the present 
would have been spent in a perpetual conflict whether the 
fiend or the brute should predominate in their nature. Does 
the reader deeply commiserate such a condition ? Let him 
remember that the depth of his compassion is a measure, how- 
ever inadequate, for estimating the value of that process 
which enables them to emerge out of it. Let him observe 
further, as the process advances, how the faculties recover 
their proper pliability, how the understanding rejoices in the 
power of apprehending truth, and reason gradually resumes 
its throne, and even the countenance itself is humanized, 
" losing the wild and vacant stare of the savage " in the mild 
and intelligent expression of the reasonable being; and let 
him remember that the pleasure which he experiences in 
marking the transformation is another measure by which to 
estimate the value of missionary effort. 

Let him not suppose, however, that he has all the evidence 
of its value before him till he has ascertained the importance 
attached to it by the recipients themselves ; till he has marked 
the adult barbarian indignant at his own slowness of compre- 
hension ; till he has seen the negro parent patiently submitting 
to be taught by his own children; * and the New Zealander 
establishing schools in his own villages, under the direction 
of native youths ; f till he has beheld the fierce warrior of a 

* Evidence on the Aborigines, p. 105. f Idem, p. 249. 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 187 

hundred battles presiding at the examination of the children 
of his people, and has seen amidst the beaming looks of the 
parents who had spared their children, and the tearful coun- 
tenances of those who had immolated theirs, some venerable 
chieftain rise, and with impassioned look and manner exclaim, 
" Let me speak ; I must speak ! O that I had known that 
the gospel was coming! O that I had known that these 
blessings were in store for us ; then I should have saved my 
children, and they would have been among this happy group, 
repeating these precious truths ; but, alas ! I destroyed them 
all, and now I have not one left;" then cursing the gods 
which they had formerly worshipped, and adding, with a flood 
of tears, " It was you that infused this savage disposition into 
us ; and now I shall die childless, although I have been the 
father of nineteen children. O that some one had seized my 
murderous hand, and had told me, The gospel of salvation is 
coming to our shores ! " * And even then let the reader re- 
member, that in estimating the value of missionary instruction, 
the chief element is wanting unless he could foresee the num- 
ber who will go forth from enjoying it, " wise unto salvation." 
3. If there existed a region where the mind of millions, 
heaving and surging like the laboring ocean, was ever seek- 
ing rest and finding none, would not he be conferring on it 
an incomparable good who should instrumentally allay its 
perturbations, and minister to its enlightened repose 1 Such 
a region is to be found wherever the terrors of superstition 
prevail. How dense must be that moral darkness which is 
only comparable to the shadow of death ! What must be the 
state of that mind which could realize its conception of the 
invisible powers only in the forms of idols so monstrously 
distorted and horrible as to shock the imagination ! How 
intense must be that anguish of soul which can impel men to 
lacerate their flesh, and inflict agonies of self-torture ! which 
can burst the sacred bonds of humanity, and offer a brother- 
man in sacrifice ! or which can even suppress the still more 
sacred feelings of the mother, and induce her to immolate 
her infant child ! Then what must be the amount of obli- 
gation conferred on the victims of such a reign of terror 
by him who takes into the midst of them an infallible 
remedy for the whole ! And yet the Christian missionary 
does this. He goes to tell the dupes of imposture of essen- 
tial truth ; to tell the infanticide mother that she may save 

* Missionary Enterprises, p. 564. 



188 RELIGIOUS BENEFITS OF 

her offspring, and may press them to her heart ; and the dev- 
otee of the Ganges of the washing of regeneration, and the 
renewing of the Holy Ghost ; and the self-torturing votary 
of cruelty that the name of God is Love ; and the self-im- 
molating worshippers of Juggernaut of the sacrifice offered 
once for all, and of the blood which cleanseth from all sin. 
Whether the heathen avail themselves of the proffered good 
or not, he takes into the midst of them light which can dissi- 
pate the gross darkness of ages, unveils a propitiation which 
expiates the guilt of a world, and the offer of a peace which 
reflects the cloudless tranquillity of heaven itself. 

4. Nor does his usefulness stop even here. At this point 
it assumes its loftiest character, and only begins to produce 
its noblest results. An agency there is which can not only 
take these blessings into the midst of a heathen tribe, but 
which can then dispose that tribe to receive them ; and by 
that agency the Christian missionary is actually accompanied. 
A change there is which new-creates the soul ; and of that 
change he is the honored instrument. Pointing to a hundred 
and eighty thousand Christian converts, he can say, " Ye 
were darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord." Name 
the most depraved and degraded of the species, and pointing 
to those converts he can say, " Such were some of you ; but 
ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified, in 
the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the spirit of our God." 
Do we speak of " the vision of dry bones" as a scene typ- 
ical of a great spiritual triumph ? Here is, at least, " an ex- 
ceeding great army " raised from the dead by the same 
renewing power, and whose spiritual change is worthy of 
being classed with the most stupendous miracles of grace. 
Do we point to the three thousand converts of the Pentecost, 
and pray for a similar triumph of the converting Spirit? 
Here are, numerically at least, the fruits of the Pentecostal 
scene fifty times repeated. 

5. If we knew of a volume, parts of which were pre- 
pared for converts such as those we have described, and the 
whole of which, written by the finger of God, was calculated 
to reflect light, and love, and glory around them ; if we knew 
of a day on which they could statedly assemble together to 
worship God, and associate in spirit with the seraphim around 
the throne, and enjoy a foretaste of the Sabbath above ; and 
if there existed a society instituted by Christ, enjoying his 
perpetual presence, and designed expressly to train them up 
for the perfect society of the blessed, would not he who 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 189 

should be the means of putting them in possession of all this 
do more than confer on them the wealth of a world? Such 
a volume there is, and with incalculable toil the missionary 
has prepared and placed it in their hands ; and as they bend 
over the sacred page, or press it to their hearts, the language 
which beams in their eye, and escapes from their lips, is, 
" Lord, to whom shall we go bat unto thee? thou hast the 
words of eternal life ! " Such a day there is : and as it dawns 
with all the hallowed tranquillity of the first Sabbath, ten 
thousand dwellings, once the habitations of cruelty, resound 
with the morning hymn of praise ; and as its sacred hours 
advance, a number greater than " the number of them that 
are sealed," " of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and 
tongues," may be seen assembled " before the throne " of 
grace, and " before the Lamb," worshipping God " in the 
beauty of holiness," and " crying, Salvation unto our God, 
who sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb." And 
such a divine society there is ; and to all those worshippers 
the Christian missionary can say, " Ye are come unto Mount 
Sion ; .... to the general assembly and church of the first- 
born, which are written in heaven." Upwards of a thousand 
particular churches, belonging to the great community of the 
faithful, are at this moment to be found in heathen lands. In 
each of these, truths are statedly proclaimed, and ordinances 
administered, which the wise and the holy of former times 
panted and prayed in vain to enjoy ; and on which infinite wis- 
dom and grace have expended their most precious resources. 
So richly worthy of God are they in their constitution and de- 
sign, that did even the least of them all exist alone in the 
earth, it would form a study for angels, from which they 
might " learn the manifold wisdom of God." So important 
and precious are they in the estimation of Christ, that while 
he is represented as only extending his sceptre and despatch- 
ing his messengers to other parts of his dominions, he him- 
self " walks in the midst of his churches." And, conse- 
quently, so ennobling are they in their practical influence, 
that every act, and privilege, and law, by which they are dis- 
tinguished, tends directly to prepare their members for the 
loftier worship of the beatified church above. 

6. And this reminds us that the bright and ultimate results 
of Christian missions are nowhere to be found on earth. 
They are to be looked for in heaven. Could we actually 
traverse every part of the wide field of missionary labor of 
which we have spoken, and could we compute the value of 



190 RELIGIOUS BENEFITS OF 

its spiritual fruits with the accuracy of the angel who meas- 
ured the ancient temple with a golden reed, vast as the total 
would be. it would only furnish us with the first figure of the 
mighty reckoning which the subject requires. In order to 
estimate their value aright, we must stand where the seer of 
the Apocalypse did, and command a view of heaven. For 
be it remembered, that since the modern missionary enter- 
prise commenced, heaven has been constantly receiving ac- 
cessions from its triumphant labors. And be it observed 
further, that could the number of these be counted, and be 
added to the missionary converts now on their way to the 
hill of God, still, in order to calculate the mighty sum of 
good, we should require to know the trains of usefulness 
which they have been enabled to lay for all the future. But 
what do we attempt ? Even then the computation would be 
only commenced. Were the last Christian missionary sent 
forth, and the last missionary proclamation of mercy deliv- 
ered, the spiritual good already effected or commenced by 
such instrumentality is infinitely beyond the reach of num- 
bers. Empty, weak, worthless as it is in itself, the Holy 
Spirit of God has been pleased to employ it as a means by 
which guilt which might destroy a world has been cancelled ; 
iron chains of sin have been burst asunder ; misery, second 
only to that of hell, has given place to the peace of God; 
hearts, stored with pollution, made habitations of God; where 
" Satan's seat " was, happy communities have been formed; 
large tracts of the earth have been blessed by it ; and heaven 
has been deriving from it some of the richest trophies of 
redeeming grace. It is important as the salvation of myriads ; 
precious as the blood of Christ; immeasurable as the joys of 
heaven ; incalculable as the revolutions of eternity. The 
mind which at first put it into motion can alone compute the 
value of its results. If an apostle felt constrained to "give 
thanks to God always" for the converts of a single church; 
if the fact that at Thessalonica a small number had been 
" turned from idols to serve the living and true God," called 
forth the perpetual thanksgiving of one who had labored in 
the missionary field more than all his contemporaries, what 
should be the amount of our gratitude on beholding our sur- 
passing success, and recollecting how little we have done 
individually to achieve it? " Not unto us, O God, not unto 
us, but unto thy name be all the glory." 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 191 

CHAPTER III. 

THE REFLEX BENEFITS OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 



SECTION I. 
TEMPORAL BENEFITS. 

One of the most benevolent arrangements of the divine 
government is to be found in the fact, that no one can impart, 
or even attempt to impart, a benefit, without himself being 
benefited. " He that watereth shall himself also be wa- 
tered." This is not to be regarded so much in the light of a 
promise, as of a law of the divine administration, — -a law by 
which the streams of beneficence are kept, like the waters of 
the ocean, in perpetual circulation, so that they are sure, 
sooner or later, to revisit their source ; and a law, therefore, 
of which the great Author is himself the sublime illustration. 
And one of the brightest exemplifications of this law, in mod- 
ern times, is to be found in the reflex influence of Christian 
missions. In proof of this, we may begin by calling attention 
to a class of benefits which even the most sanguine and far- 
sighted friends of the missionary enterprise hardly contem- 
plated at first, — the temporal advantages which it returns to 
the people with whom it originates. Had one of its more cal- 
culating and sagacious friends ventured at the outset to proph- 
esy such effects, the intimation would have been likely to 
excite greater contempt, if possible, from the world, than even 
the expected spiritual result ; and even some of the church 
would have been ready to say, " If the Lord would make win- 
dows in heaven, might this thing be." Yet such is the im- 
posing magnitude to which this class of its results has now 
attained, that men who care for no other or higher benefit, 
acknowledge that this alone would amply repay the effort by 
which it is gained. 

1. As one of the lowest, but very important advantages 
of Christian missions, we might name the services which they 
have rendered to literature and science. Geographical and 



192 REFLEX BENEFITS OF 

statistical information, to a very large amount, has been fur- 
nished by the missionaries respecting Western Africa.* The 
Christian Researches of Buchanan in India ; and of Jowett in 
the Mediterranean, Syria, and the Holy Land ; the journals 
of Heber ; the biographies of Martyn, Hall, Turner, Thom- 
ason, Brown, and others ; the periodical accounts of the 
Serampore brethren ; and the voluminous reports of severa. 
of the missionary institutions, are of great value to the his- 
torian and the naturalist. The Travels of Tyerman and 
Bennett ; of GutzlafT in China : and of Smith and Dwight 
through Georgia, Armenia, &c. ; the Polynesian Researches 
of Ellis ; and Heartley's Researches in Greece and the Le- 
vant; Gobat's Abyssinian Journal; Williams's Missionary 
Enterprises in the South Sea Islands ; Medhurst's China ; 
and the invaluable volume of " Evidence on the Aborigines ; " 
are books, whose attractions of subject and style have secured 
them an admission into the library of the philosopher as well 
as of the Christian. Geography, geology, natural history, 
philology, and ethnography — the science which classifies 
nations according to their languages f — have been greatly 
enriched by them. " Numerous materials," says Balbi, | 
" for the comparison of languages, have been collected at 
various times during the last three hundred years. In this 
field, along with many other very useful laborers, the minis- 
ters of Christianity have occupied the first rank. To the 
zeal of the Moravian, Baptist, and other Protestant mission- 
aries, as well as to the members of Bible Societies § of all 
Christian sects, ethnography owes its acquaintance with so 
many nations hitherto unknown in India and other regions 
of Asia, in various parts of America and Oceanica, along 
with the translation, in whole or in part, of the Bible in more 
than a hundred different languages/' 

In philology especially, the contributions of the mission- 
aries have been distinguished. By correcting prevailing 



* See the Life of S. J. Mills ; the eleven volumes of the African 
Repository ; the London Missionary Register ; and Reports of the 
African Institution. 

t Or, more strictly, the science which has for its object to classify 
nations. 

$ Preliminary Discourse prefixed to the Atlas Ethnographique, 
Paris, 1826. 

§ The British and Foreign Bible Society has printed the Bible in 
nearly two hundred languages and dialects. 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 193 

errors respecting linguistic affinities ; * by bringing to light 
some of the choicest literary treasures of antiquity ; f by their 
valuable translations from the languages of the East ; $ by 
reducing many of the unwritten languages of the earth to 
order and intelligible classification; § and by the patient and 
laborious preparation of English and foreign dictionaries 
and grammars, || they have laid the philologist under per- 
manent obligation. Accordingly, not only has commerce 
been indebted to them, and an embassy employed them, fl 
but learned societies * * call in their aid, and accord their 
grateful thanks; ft while the leading critics and journalists 
record their praises, t f and the graver encyclopaedist § § 
registers the activity of their labors for the information of 
posterity.|| || 

* Rev. Mr. Lieder, of the Church Missionary Society, seems to 
have determined that the Berber language of North Africa has no 
resemblance to that spoken by the Berberi of Nubia, as supposed by 
Balbi and others. His investigations throw great light on the Ian 
guages spoken in Nubia. 

t The German Missionary Society entertains the hope that its 
missionaries at Shoosha will soon succeed in publishing that most 
precious relic of the Armenian church, their earliest translation of 
the Bible, dating from the fourth century. [A hope since disappointed 
by the expulsion of the missionaries.^ 

X Mr. Thomson is understood to have engaged to translate, for the 
Oriental Translation Society, some original works from the language 
of the Bugis, or principal nation of Celebes. 

§ See the chapter preceding. 

|| Here Morrison — the Johnson of Christian lexicographers — 
stands conspicuous. Klaproth, in a detailed critique on his Chinese 
and English Dictionary, in the Mlgemeine Litteratur Zeitung, places 
it beside "the great lexicon of the immortal Meninski." Montucci 
goes much beyond this praise. M. Abel Remusat, Davis, and Hutt- 
mann, pronounce on it the highest eulogy. 

ft Dr. Morrison in the suite of Lord Amherst, and Chinese inter- 
preter to the British commission at Canton; in which office he was 
succeeded by Gutzlaff. 

** The Oriental Translation Society. See above. 

ft At a meeting of the Oriental Translation Society in London, 
June 23d, 1832, a vote of thanks to this effect to the American mis- 
sion in Ceylon, proposed by Sir A. Johnston, and seconded by Sir 
W. Ouseley, was unanimously carried. 

tt "These authors," says the Foreign Quarterly Review, No. 28, 
referring to Marsden, Raines, and Crawford, "have been followed, 
and, at least, in practical acquaintance with the languages of the 
Eastern islands, surpassed, by several of the English missionaries." 

§ § See Balbi. 
| In the American Biblical Repository for Jan. 1836, ther© is an 

17 



194 REFLEX BENEFITS OF 

2. Christian missions have corrected and enlarged our 
views of the character and condition of man. In vain would 
it now be for a Rousseau to repeat his foolish fancies con- 
cerning the perfections of the savage man, and the happiness 
of the savage life, and quite unnecessary that a Forster 
should gravely adduce evidence to the contrary,* a Ferguson 
honor them with a philosophical investigation^ or a Burke 
expose them to ridicule. \ The universal degradation and 
misery of unreclaimed man, even of that boast of a false phi- 
losophy, the North American Indian, has, chiefly by the 
circulation of missionary information, become a fact as fully 
accredited as that of his existence. In vain would it now be 
for a certain class of Europeans to paint in glowing colors, as 
they once did, the virtue of Asiatic pagans, and to eulogize 
their mythology as the most perfect system of morality which 
ever demanded the homage of the heart. That spell of false- 
hood Buchanan broke, by the exhibition of Juggernaut and 
his horrors. And if there was not in so old and well-exam- 
ined a thing as human nature any new principle of evil to be 
brought to light, missionary disclosures have at least shown 
some of its known evil principles operating in the mild Hin- 
doo, " with such an absoluteness of possessive power, and 
displaying this disposition in such wantonly versatile, extrav- 
agant, and monstrous effects, as to surpass all our previous 
imaginations and measures of possibility. " § And, on the 
other hand — for the same persons who profess to regard the 
perfection of one class of pagans as all but inimitable, can, 
with singular versatility, pronounce another class irreclaim- 
able — in vain would they now refuse the claims and rights 
of humanity to any portion of the species. " Ten years ago/' 
says the report || for 1820 of an American missionary so- 
ciety, " the aborigines of our country were regarded by this 
great community, with the exception of here and there an 
individual, as an utterly intractable race, never to be brought 



article on the subject of the above paragraph replete with informa- 
tion, to which the author gratefully acknowledges his obligations. 

* Observations, &c, by J. R. Forster, LL. D., 1778. 

t View of Society. 

% Vindication of Natural Society. 

§ Foster's incomparable Missionary Discourse, or profound Trea- 
tise, bound up with his Essay on Popular Ignorance, p. 422. 

|| The eleventh annual Report of the American Board of Commis- 
sioners of Foreign Missions. 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS; 195 

within the pale of civilized society, but doomed by unaltera- 
ble destiny to melt away and become extinct ; and a spirit of 
vengeance and of extermination was breathed out against 
them in many parts of our land. Now, the whole nation is 
moved by a very different spirit." The missionary experi 
ment has determined that there is no form of humanity, how 
ever lost to civilization, which cannot be restored to it; or 
however sunk in the brute, which cannot be raised, recovered, 
and taught to hold communion with the skies. 

And almost equally in vain will it soon be for the disciples 
of the French naturalist to continue to deny the origin of the 
race in a single pair. " God has made of one blood all na- 
tions of men to dwell on the face of the earth." In this 
doctrine of a common nature, and the consequent closeness 
of relationship among all the branches of the human family, 
is laid the foundation of all the social affections and duties. 
Whatever tends to confirm this doctrine, therefore, must be 
pronounced of vital importance. Now, the philological labors 
of the Christian missionary are serving to simplify that pro- 
cess which goes to show that all the known languages of the 
earth are but dialects of one now most probably lost.* Be- 
sides which, the identity of effect which the preaching of the 
gospel universally produces, contributes a new and satisfactory 
species of evidence of the identity of the origin of all man- 
kind. When we see how Christ was " followed by the Greek, 
though a founder of none of his sects ; is revered by the 
Brahmin, though preached to him by men of the fisherman's 
caste ; worshipped by the red man of Canada, though belong- 
ing to the hated pale race ; we cannot but consider him as 
destined to break down all distinction of color, and shape, 
and countenance, and habits, and to form in himself the 
type of unity to which are referable all the sons of Adam, and 
to give us, in the possibility of this moral convergence, the 
strongest proof that the human species, however varied, is 
essentially one." f 

3. But not only has the Christian missionary contributed 
to correct and enlarge our views of the distant branches of 
the human family, — in numerous instances he has been the 



* The French Academy, after long research and deliberation, have 
given to this view their decided approbation; so also Schlegel and 
other distinguished scholars. 

t Wiseman's Lectures, vol. i. p. 257. 



196 REFLEX BENEFITS OF 

means of correxting and elevating their views of our char 
acter. Numerous and substantial services have accrued to 
the European from this source, especially in the islands of the 
Pacific. The single illustration we shall cite, however, has 
its scene in semi-civilized India. " Do not send to me any 
of your agents," said Hyder Ali, in his messages to the coun- 
cil at Madras, " for I do not trust their words or treaties ; 
but, if you wish me to listen to your proposals, send to me 
the missionary Swartz, of whose character I hear so much 
from every one — him I will receive and trust." And in his 
letter to the Marquis .Cornwallis, General Fullarton writes, 
" On our second march, we were visited by the Rev. Mr. 
Swartz, whom your lordship and the Board requested to pro- 
ceed to Seringapatam, as a faithful mediator between Tippoo 
and the commissioners. The knowledge and integrity of 
this irreproachable missionary have retrieved the character 
of Europeans from imputations of general depravity." * 

4. To a very considerable extent, Christian missions have 
been instrumental also in the preservation of European life. 
On the capitulation of Cuddalore, in 1782, the influence and 
efforts of Gericke were the means of saving numbers from 
the fangs of Hyder, and from all the accumulated miseries 
which he heaped on his victims.t 

" When Bishop Johannes de Watteville was on a visitation 
of the negro congregations in the Danish West India Islands, 
the governor pointed to the church of the missionaries, and 
remarked, that it was the principal fortress, and considered 
by him as the great safeguard of the island. He added, that 
before it was built, he had not ventured to sleep a night out 
of the fortress on his plantation; but now he had no fear; 
for even if there was a conspiracy among the slaves, the Chris- 
tian slaves were sure to hear of and to discover it." \ 

But on this important though incidental service rendered 
by Christian missions, the "Evidence on the Aborigines" 
abounds with illustrations. When, in consequence of unpro- 

v ^d injuries inflicted by whalers and others, the natives 
have determined to seize, in blind retaliation, on the next 
European vessel that touches their shores, the missionary has 
often succeeded in dissuading; them from the execution of 



* See Gutzlafr on this subject, Voyages, p. 58. 

t Smith and Choules's History of Missions, vol. i. p. 31. 

X Ryan's Effects of Religion on Mankind, p. 229. 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 197 

their fatal purpose. # Disputes, which could have ended only 
in personal conflicts between European crews and native 
tribes, have been terminated amicably by missionary medi- 
ation^ And even when a conflict of mutual destruction has 
actually occurred, the missionary station — as in the late 
insurrection of the Caffres — has been a city of refuge to the 
fugitive European. Not only were their own lives saved, but, 
owing to the influence which they possessed, they were the 
means of preserving several of the traders.^ 

5. This reminds us that commerce itself is under no small 
obligations to missionary influence. In vain were all the at- 
tempts of the colonial government to establish a commercial 
intercourse with the Caffre tribes, until the Christian mis- 
sionary had gained a footing amongst them.§ But not only 
does he now form a connecting link in the chain of civiliza- 
tion between the colonies and the Caffres and other tribes, || 
— by the introduction of the plough, he is likely to be the 
means of turning the attention of the aborigines from pasto- 
ral to agricultural pursuits ; in consequence of which their 
cattle will no longer prove a source of irritation and conflict 
with the frontier colonists,^ and a much narrower compass 
of land will be sufficient for their comfortable support.** 

New Zealand is unquestionably the key to India, on the 
one hand, as the Cape of Good Hope is on the other. And 
if, as events increasingly indicate, a wise policy should require 
our government to enter into a friendly treaty with that 
country, the measure would be greatly facilitated, if not en- 
tirely owing, to the favorable predisposition created in our 
behalf by missionary influence.it 

Up to a very recent period the South Sea Islands were, 
in a commercial point of view, a complete blank ; but now 
they are made to contribute to our wants, and to take off our 
manufactures, to a considerable extent.ff Sugar is cultiva- 
ted, and taken in native-built vessels to the colony of New 
South Wales ; §§ and more arrow-root has been brought from 
thence to England in one year, than had been imported for 
nearly twenty previous years. |||| Between two and three 

* Evidence on the Aborigines, pp. 47, 48, 235. 
t Idem, p. 207. % Idem, p. 344. § Idem, p. 339. 

|| Idem, p. 346. IT Idem, p. 155. ** Idem, p. 93. ft Idem, p. 85. 
XX Idem, p. 314 ; and Howitt's Colonization and Christianity, 
pp. 440, 441. 

§§ Evidence on the Aborigines, p. 179. |||I Idem, p. 180 

17 * 



198 REFLEX BENEFITS OF 

hundred thousand of the natives are now wearing European 
clothing, and using European implements and articles, who 
a few years ago knew nothing of our manufactures.* 

6. The shipping of our country, too, derives as much ad- 
vantage from Christian missions as its commerce. This will 
appear, if it be recollected that intercourse between Euro- 
peans and the untaught islanders of the Pacific is always dan- 
gerous, and has often proved fatal. The adventurous Magel- 
lan fell at the Ladrone Islands; Captain Cook was barba- 
rously murdered at the Sandwich group ; the ship Venus was 
taken at Tahiti ; M. de L angle and his companions were killed 
at the Samoas ; the Port au Prince was seized at Lefuga ; 
and the crew of the Boyd were massacred at New Zealand. 
And now, at all these islands, with the exception of the La- 
drones, there are missionary stations, where between two and 
three hundred vessels annually resort ; the crews of which look 
forward with delight to the hour when the anchor shall be 
dropped in the tranquil lagoon, and they shall find a gener- 
ous welcome and a temporary home. Here, at the smallest 
possible expense, the captains can obtain a supply of fresh 
meat and provisions, refit their vessels, and recruit their 
crews, f 

Formerly, also, when a wreck occurred, the natives hast- 
ened to plunder and murder, or reserved those who escaped 
from the sea for sacrifices. Witness the unhappy sufferers 
of the Charles Eaton, and the still more recent massacre of 
Captain Fraser and his crew on the coast of New Holland. 
But now, wherever Christianity has been introduced, the oc- 
currence of a wreck is the signal for the exercise of the 
kindest feelings towards the sufferers themselves, and of the 
greatest zeal for the protection of their property. The Fal- 
con, the Sir Charles Price, and several other vessels, have 
been cast away at or near such stations; and not only have 
the captains and others attested that "not a nail was lost," 
and that all the attention was given to their personal com- 
fort which kindness could bestow, but thousands of pounds 
have been transmitted to England and America as the pro- 
ceeds arising from the sale of property saved on such occa- 
sions by native activity and zeal. J Thus many a Christian 

* Evidence on the Aborigines, p. 311. 
f Williams's Missionary Enterprises, pp. 584, 585. 
X Evidence on the Aborigines, p. 183 ; and Williams's speech be- 
fore the Common Council. 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 199 

missionary is, in effect, a British consul of the most unex- 
pensive and efficient kind ; and his congregation a society 
for the protection of British lives and property. While the 
missionary enterprise itself, by finding new havens at the 
antipodes for our fleets, opening new channels for our com- 
merce, and every where multiplying the friends of our country, 
is eminently conducive to the prosperity of its temporal in- 
terests. 

Such, we repeat, is the imposing magnitude to which this 
class of its results has now attained, that men who care not 
for any other or higher benefit, acknowledge that this alone 
would amply repay the efforts by which it has been gained. 
But though the benefits we have now specified possess all the 
importance attached to them ; and though they are among 
the first to catch the eye in a survey like the present, we con- 
ceive that there are others of the same class of greater mo- 
ment still. In closing our estimate of the temporal good 
accruing to the heathens from Christian missions, we re- 
marked on the surpassing value of the services which they 
have rendered to negro emancipation, and to general coloni- 
zation. And in concluding this brief account of their reflex 
temporal effects on ourselves, we cannot but avow our belief 
that their chief national value will hereafter be found to have 
consisted in the influence which they have shed on the same 
great objects. The full and distinct proof of this would 
doubtless require a large induction of historical facts. We 
will only ask, however, Where now are the possessions of 
that kingdom, whose armies and governors, with savage cru- 
elty, exterminated the Caribs, the Mexicans, and the chil- 
dren of the sun ? In whose hands are the Floridas, Mexico, 
Darien, Terra Firma, Buenos Ayres, Paraguay, Chili, Peru, 
and California? But if there be any truth in the doctrine 
of divine retribution, or any thing fearful in the divine dis- 
pleasure, then every one admitting the guilt of slavery and 
the criminal spirit of our colonial conduct, will instantly 
grant that the missionary enterprise, by powerfully tending to 
abolish the former, and to ameliorate the latter, has instru- 
mentally averted a great national curse, and has proved a 
proportionate national blessing. The magnitude of the bless- 
ing, indeed, is unknown ; for its moral influence will continue 
to extend through every coming generation of mankind, and 
its value to increase with every moment of time. 



200 REFLEX SPIRITUAL BENEFITS OF 

SECTION II. 

THE REFLEX SPIRITUAL BENEFITS OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 

Before the distant regions of the earth are likely to be 
turned to the knowledge of the truth, says Douglas in his 
Advancement of Society, England herself will be evangel- 
ized in the act of evangelizing other nations. Whatever 
may be thought of this remark, we would venture to ask, if 
the sole object of Christian activity within the last fifty years 
had been the advancement of religion in our own land, in 
what other way could it have been better promoted than it 
has been by sending the gospel abroad? In other words, 
had the same amount of money and effort which the mission- 
ary object has absorbed, been devoted to the diffusion of the 
gospel at home, is there any reason to believe that our country 
would have reaped greater spiritual benefit than it is now 
enjoying by the reflex influence of Christian missions? The 
particulars following will furnish materials for a correct 
reply. 

1. It is not for us to say at what moment, or in what mind, 
the heavenly purpose arose which God has graciously made 
the occasion of modern missionary instrumentality. Even 
were the circumstances submitted to our investigation, they 
would probably present a web of mutual influence far too com- 
plicated for us to unravel. To the eye of God, however, such 
a mind, and such a moment, are doubtless present. The 
conception of the purpose was an era in the history of the 
Christian church, comparable only with the Reformation 
itself. And not less eventful to £he moral condition of the 
world at large was the moment which saw its birth, than the 
hour in which Columbus determined to give a new world to 
the old, to their temporal concerns. And here, be it re- 
marked, that He who hath made it " more blessed to give than 
to receive," began to bless the giver even before he could 
begin to impart ; * — in the very act of intending and arran- 
ging to give. The mere announcement of the project was a 
blessing. If only by helping to break up the monotony which 
extensively prevailed in the religious services and topics of 
the day, it rendered a service to the church, which those 
who are accustomed to the variety of the present time can 
scarcely estimate. 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 201 

2. The striking manner in which the missionary enter- 
prise enlivened the piety, and increased the happiness, of 
those who first espoused it, may be illustrated best by the fol- 
lowing quotations. " There was a period of my ministry/' 
said the devoted Andrew Fuller to a friend, " marked by the 
most pointed systematic effort to comfort my serious peo- 
ple : but the more I tried to comfort them, the more they 
complained of doubts and darkness. ... I knew not what to 
do, nor what to think, for I had done my best to comfort the 
mourners in Zion. At this time it pleased God to direct my 
attention to the claims of the perishing heathen in India ; I 
felt that we had been living for ourselves, and not caring for 
their souls. I spoke as I felt. My serious people wondered 
and wept over their past inattention to the subject. They 
began to talk about a Baptist mission. The females espe- 
cially began to collect money for the spread of the gospel. 
We met and prayed for the heathen ; met and considered 
what could be done amongst ourselves for them ; met and did 
what we could. And, whilst all this was going on, the 
lamentations ceased. The sad became cheerful, and the 
desponding calm. No one complained of a want of comfort. 
And I, instead of having to study how to comfort my flock, 
was myself comforted by them. They were drawn out of 
themselves. Sir, that was the real secret. God blessed them 
while they tried to be a blessing." 

" After the departure of our brethren" — the first Baptist 
missionaries to India — says the brief narrative of the Baptist 
mission,* " we had time for reflection. In reviewing the 
events of a few preceding months, we were much impressed. 
The thought of having done something towards enlarging the 
boundaries of our Savior's kingdom, and of rescuing poor 
heathens and Mahometans from under Satan's yoke, rejoiced 
our hearts. We were glad also to see the people of God 
offering so willingly ; some leaving their country, others 
pouring in their property, and all uniting in prayers to 
Heaven for a blessing. A new bond of union was formed 
between distant ministers and churches. Some, who had 
backslidden from God, were restored ; and others, who had 
long been poring over their unfruitful ness, and questioning the 
reality of their personal religion, having their attention di- 

* Second Report of the Southern Board [American] of Foreign 
Missions. 



202 REFLEX SPIRITUAL BENEFITS OF 

rected to Christ and his kingdom, lost their fears, and found 
that peace which in other pursuits they had sought in vain. 
In short, our hearts were enlarged ; and, if no other good had 
arisen from the undertaking than the effect produced upon 
our own minds, and the minds of Christians in our own 
country, it was more than equal to the expense. 75 * 

3. The benefit of Christian activity became general ; for 
the missionary spirit, seizing in steady succession the various 
sections of the Christian community, quickened them all into 
emulation. The movement of one department was a signal 
for the movement of every other. And long before the last 
tribe of our British Israel had unfurled its banners and fol- 
lowed the van, the churches of America, excited by our ex- 
ample, gave " note of preparation/' and took the field. In 
equally quick succession, their tribes came " forth to the help 
of the Lord,' 5 and were soon seen " provoking one another to 
love and to good works." Nor, indeed, has the hallowed prov- 
ocation on either side of the Atlantic been confined, subse- 
quently, to its own hemisphere. The identity of our object 
has given us a reciprocity of influence which places each 
separate portion of our respective communities under the im- 
pulse of the whole ; so that a movement made by one is 
almost instantly felt by all. What an illustration has the 
working of our missionary institutions thus created, of the in- 
calculable value and power of Christian influence ! 

4. Nor was the institution of one missionary society a sig- 
nal for the establishment of other societies of the same kind, 
merely. The Spirit of God had moved upon the face of the 
ecclesiastical waters, and each succeeding period was distin- 
guished by creations of its own. Like a true scion from the 
life-giving tree of prophetic vision, " which bare twelve man- 
ner of fruits," the missionary enterprise soon found itself 
the stock of various kindred institutions. While, judging 
from the subsequent renovation of some other societies of a 
prior existence, it has had the effect of fertilizing and improv- 
ing institutions which it has not originated. So that, point- 
ing at many of our associations and efforts for the distribu- 
tion of Bibles and tracts; for the establishment of Sunday 
schools, and the advancement of village evangelization, we 
may ask, Which of these did not receive either its existence, 
or its impulse, from the missionary enterprise 1 

* Smith and Choules's History of Missions, vol. i. p. 189. 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 203 

5. And thus we have been gradually regaining the long- 
forgotten but invaluable conviction, that the cause of reli- 
gion at home and abroad is one. If Christian missions have 
taught us, on the one hand, that the same principles which 
prompt us to train up our children in the fear of God, and to 
seek the salvation of those immediately around us, impel to 
evangelical efforts for the benefit of every portion of the 
human race, and that to attempt to separate living piety from 
expansive beneficence is almost as vain as it is unscriptural, by 
bringing to light new and fearful scenes of foreign destitution, 
and by thus arousing attention and quickening our Christian 
sensibilities, they have been the means, on the other, of prepar- 
ing us to feel a livelier interest in the claims of home. Evils 
to which we had become resigned, because they were contin- 
ually before our eyes, and which escaped our animadversion 
almost as much as if they formed an inseparable part of the 
course of nature, have consequently been not only deplored, 
but successfully assailed. The reasons which are assigned 
for sending the gospel abroad, are felt to acquire augmented 
force when applied to the wants of the perishing at home. 
Besides which, the efforts which are made abroad are found 
to demand more than an equal effort at home to supply their 
expenditure. While this improvement at home, demanding a 
wider sphere than the country which gave it birth, is trans- 
ferred to the unlimited range of missionary labor ; and thus 
the infant school of yesterday has its counterpart to-day in 
the glens of Africa, the Australian wilderness, and the islands 
of the Pacific ; and what is gained for humanity in any one 
spot, is found not to impoverish any other, but to be gained 
for humanity throughout the world.* 

6. By this and similar means, the views of the Christian 
church have been greatly enlarged. The missionary enter- 
prise could have been conceived only on the top of Pisgah. 
It refuses to entertain any design less than the amelioration 
of the species. Taking it for granted that every true interest 
is universal, it consults, as it prosecutes its march, the map of 
the world. Its appropriate type is an angel flying through 
the midst of heaven. 

Even the discovery of a new continent, and the enlarge- 
ment of the universe by the invention of the telescope, gave 
an impulse to Europe, the force of which is still felt, and still 

" Douglas's Advancement of Society, &c. p. 216. 



204 REFLEX SPIRITUAL BENEFITS OF 

carrying us forward. And should the objects and prospects 
of the missionary enterprise produce impressions less power- 
ful or sublime ? So lofty is the mount of contemplation to 
which it conducts us, — so boundless the prospect which it 
there stretches before us, — and so completely does it famil- 
iarize our minds with the vast designs of God, and the ample 
plans of his providence, that our purposes may well seem to 
enlarge greatly beyond the proportion of our means. The 
statesman, who plans only to preserve the balance of empire, 
and whose scheme embraces an age beyond his own, is 
praised for the reach and comprehensiveness of his views. 
But what are the purposes formed, and the ends aimed at, by 
the friends of missions ? They lie in a sphere so lofty, that 
the ambition of the warrior has never reached it, and require 
so ample a scope, that the policy of the statesman would be 
spent in it and lost. Their field is the world ; and their aim 
is to carry the torch of truth into the shadow of death ; to 
prepare the savage for society, and to give society a sure 
foundation ; to rescue the slave from his chains, and to wel- 
come him to the liberty of the gospel ; to hush the discord of 
war, and to restore the various branches of the human race 
to each other by restoring them to God ; and to see all the 
crowns of the world at the feet of Christ. These are their 
daily thoughts — their most familiar designs. If true great- 
ness ennobles whatever it touches, must not the missionary 
enterprise tend to dignify all who voluntarily come under its 
influence'? By employing us as its agents, it has involved us 
in the mightiest conflict which the universe ever saw, and has 
invested us with its own exalted character. It has given to 
the prayer, " Thy kingdom come/' a sublimity in ten thousand 
eyes, which would otherwise have been blind to its grandeur. 
And twice ten thousand who, but for it, would most likely 
have been immured at this moment within their little denom- 
inational enclosure, and complaining, like Elijah, of their 
supposed isolation, are exhorting each other in the glowing 
language of Isaiah, and saying, " Lift up thine eyes round 
about, and see ; all they gather themselves together, they 
come to thee ; thy sons come from afar, and thy daughters 
are nursed at thy side. Then thou shalt see and flow 
together, and thine heart shall fear and be enlarged ; because 
the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the 
forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee." 

7. But such Christian enlargement of spirit leads to the 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 205 

sympathetic union of all who become conscious of its expand-' 
ing influence. True, it must be deplored with deep humilia- 
tion before God that the cementing tendency of Christian 
missions has of late years met with lamentable interruptions. 
In the midst of those very interruptions, however, the mis- 
sionary spirit, by often triumphing over them, has been the 
means of exemplifying the surpassing power of genuine piety, 
and of furnishing the strongest ground to hope for their 
final and utter removal. Forgetting their scruples and their 
preferences, the friends of missions have at times been seen 
according their hearty support of the glorious gospel, by 
whomsoever diffused. With a happy inconsistency they have 
hailed the missionary successes of others, and have thus 
crossed the denominational line of separation, and seized the 
fruits which belong to a season of visible union. While, by 
every prayer they have breathed for missionary efforts, they 
have been virtually affirming and consecrating this catholic 
principle, that it is becoming and scriptural to aid the diffu- 
sion of the gospel abroad, whoever the Christian agents may 
be ; and to aid them in the mightiest of all forms, by invok- 
ing in their behalf the blessing of God. 

But besides affirming this great principle of Christian sym- 
pathy, under circumstances the most adverse to more visible 
and entire union, the missionary enterprise has been exten- 
sively the means, under God, of preventing many a rupture 
which would otherwise have occurred, and of strengthening 
many a bond of attachment which would else have been burst 
asunder. As a fine illustration, we quote the following ex- 
tract from the Report * of an American missionary society : 
" The whole business of forming these Boards [of Foreign 
Missions] was conducted in all three of the Synods with 
entire unanimity, and was felt by all to have exerted on these 
bodies, and on the cause of religion as they are related to it, 
a most happy influence. In the Synod of South Carolina 
and Georgia, the business was concluded by the unanimous 
adoption of the following resolution : ' Resolved, — That 
this Synod acknowledge with gratitude the goodness of God, 
in bringing before them the great subject of foreign mis- 
sions, and in directing them to a unanimous and blessed re- 
sult/ " And a member of the Synod, a pastor of one of its 

* Twenty-fifth Annual Report of the American Board of Com 
missioners for Foreign Missions, 1834, pp. 30, 31. 

18 



206 REFLEX SPIRITUAL BENEFITS OF 

most important churches, speaks of the influence of these 
proceedings as follows, in a letter to one of the secretaries : 
" This Synod has been by it saved from disunion and discord. 
It has been harmonized and united. It has been melted 
down into one mass. It has now one soul, and breathes one 
sentiment — to live, not for ourselves, or our own sectional 
interests, but for the conversion of the world. Such a^hap- 
py, holy, rejoicing, and blessed meeting of Synod has never, 
according to the opinion of the eldest members, been wit- 
nessed and enjoyed. There were dark and portentous clouds 
hanging over it. Every mind was filled with apprehension. 
Each feared to ask the sentiment of his brother. But the 
clouds are dispersed and gone. Our fears are changed into 
joys, and we parted from each other in the warmest inter- 
change of brotherly affection. And all is attributable — 
and, by a solemn recorded resolution of the Synod, is as- 
cribed — to the discussion of the missionary subject, and en- 
gagement in the missionary cause. The scene which occurred 
when we all stood up, after uniting in prayer, to adopt the 
whole constitution, was overpowering. There were few dry 
eyes, even of those unused to tears. There were frequent 
and loud sobbings. There was the solemnity of eternity. 
There was the cool intrepidity of a band of soldiers, prepar- 
ing for a charge upon the citadel of an armed and enraged 
enemy. After adopting the constitution, we sang the mis- 
sionary hymn, when it seemed that heaven heard the sound, 
and earth responded with a glad 'Amen.' " 

8. But the same missionary enlargement of spirit which 
tends to unite all who partake of it into one sympathetic 
brotherhood, has also led to the willing consecration of their 
property. Such was the boundless benevolence of Christ, that 
" for the joy set before him," and which consisted partly in 
the prospect of human salvation, he " endured the cross, de- 
spising the shame." Was it, then, to be wondered at if his 
professed followers should so far share in his benevolence as 
to contribute a portion of their property for an object for 
which he gave " his own self" ? Accordingly, the widow has 
been seen casting into the mission treasury of her penury, 
and the rich man of his abundance ; and though the scale of 
Christian liberality is still far below the standard of the gos- 
pel, yet how much lower would it have been, humanly speak 
ing, but for the ennobling influence of Christian missions! 
How many have been led to abandon the notion, that we may 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 207 

allowably hoard up our property while we live, if we will 
only make a religious bequest of a certain proportion of it 
at death ! Strange as it would have appeared to us all a few 
years ago, and strange as it seems even now to those who 
are behind their age, Christians can be found whose religious 
charities considerably exceed a tenth of their income. Mil- 
lions have been contributed to Christian missions, a large 
proportion of which would otherwise have been given to 
"the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride 
of life." And the number is increasing of those who are ready 
to add to their other offerings upon the altar, themselves and 
their children. 

In three respects especially has the missionary enterprise 
produced a most salutary effect on Christian liberality. It 
has shown that, like every other disposition, benevolence is 
strengthened by exercise ; for in proportion as information 
concerning heathen wretchedness and Christian obligation to 
alleviate it has been circulated, every increased demand for 
Christian charity has been regularly met with an increased 
supply. 2. It has led many who gave from impulse only to 
contribute from principle, and on a system ; and has thus 
given to charity the character of a holy philosophy. 3. And 
it has produced an auspicious dissatisfaction with the highest 
scale of liberality hitherto attained, and awakened a convic- 
tion that the pecuniary resources of a church adequately 
alive to its obligations would, under the divine administration 
of Him who multiplied a morsel into a feast for five thousand, 
prove indefinite and inexhaustible. 

9. Nor has the missionary enterprise less directly tended 
to awaken and cherish a spirit of prayer. We have already 
spoken of the period when monthly missionary meetings for 
prayer were commenced as an era in the history of Christian 
missions ; and though every division of the Christian com- 
munity may not have formally adopted the same course, there 
is no portion perhaps which has not in consequence been 
favorably influenced ; certainly none which the missionary 
spirit has not quickened into increased devotion. Owing to 
the same cause, how much greater a prominence has been 
given to the doctrine of divine influence, and how much 
more deeply have thousands felt their dependence upon it ! 
How many a public meeting has solemnly resolved to the 
effect, " That, recognizing their dependence on the gracious 
agency of the Holy Spirit for all success in labors for saving 



208 REFLEX SPIRITUAL BENEFITS OF 

the heathen, and the indispensable importance of fervent and 
importunate supplication to Almighty God for this purpose," 
Christians should be exhorted and excited to increased inter- 
cession ! And how many an instance of private devotion has 
ensued, unknown to man, but witnessed by angels, and re- 
corded in heaven, in which such resolutions have been car- 
ried into effect " with strong crying and tears"! Indeed, 
what is now the one ardent, all-comprehending desire of the 
holiest portion of the Christian church but this, " Let the 
whole earth be filled with his glory " — a desire which, in the 
eye of God, is equally a prayer, whether it be " uttered or 
unexpressed ; " so that it may be regarded as always ascend- 
ing ; a desire which gives birth in every heart that cherishes 
it to a thousand kindred desires, each of which brings down 
the divine blessing, not on the missionary enterprise alone, 
but on the entire field of Christian activity ; and a desire 
which, as it cannot be urged in prayer without being fulfilled, 
so it cannot be fulfilled without multiplying the number of 
Christian suppliants, and thus filling the church with inter- 
cessors for the world. " O Thou that hearest prayer, unto 
thee shall all flesh come." 

10. What noble specimens of Christian character has the 
missionary enterprise given to the church and to the world! 
The enterprise itself is a pure creation of Christianity. It is 
a combination, not of the worldly and selfish to advance their 
own peculiar interests; not of the powerful and the wealthy 
to tyrannize over the poor and the helpless ; but an associa- 
tion of the great and the good, of the aged pastor, the ardent 
missionary, and the young disciple, — of all that is excellent 
in the Christian church ; an association in which the wealth 
of the affluent, the tongue of the learned, the prayer of the 
poor, and the mite of the widow, are combined and engaged 
to give the gospel to all the tribes and nations of the earth. 

But among the friends and agents of this unworldly con- 
federation there are some whose character shines with pecu- 
liar lustre. Here female piety has recovered and displayed 
anew the glory which it won when it wept at the cross, and 
was early at the sepulchre. Here offerings more costly than 
those of the " sweet spices" of the sepulchre have been pre- 
sented by the Christian Marys of modern times. Here many 
a mother, whom the world knows not, has, in the depth of 
her own heart, like the mother of Mills,* dedicated her off- 

* Smith and Choules's History of Missions, vol. ii. p. ^34. 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 209 

spring to a post of distant labor. What Spartan mother of 
old, when buckling on the armor of her son, and bidding him, 
as she gave him his shield, " either to bring it back, or to be 
brought back upon it," can compare with the widowed mother 
of Lyman, when she replied to the intelligence that her son 
had been murdered by the cannibal Battas, " I bless God, 
who gave me such a son to go to the heathen, and I never 
felt so strongly as I do at this moment the desire that some 
others of my sons may become missionaries also, and may go 
and preach salvation to those savage men who have drunk the 
blood of my son." * What ancient Hebrew women, receiving 
" their dead raised to life again," surpassed the self-denying 
faith of the widowed mother who could say of a son to whom 
herself and her seven children w T ere beginning to look for 
support, " Let him go ; God will provide for me and my 
babes. And who am I, that I should be thus honored to have 
a son a missionary to the heathen 1 " and who, when that son 
had labored successfully in India, and had died, could say of 
a second, who aspired to walk in the footsteps of his brother, 
" Let William follow Joseph, though it be to India and an 
early grave " ? t Here the accomplished and highly-intellec- 
tual female may be seen meekly, yet firmly, devoting herself 
to a distant and arduous career ; vying with the hero in his 
defiance of dangers, and with the martyr in the endurance of 
them. If self-devotion deserve our applause, who can present 
a stronger claim than Harriet Newell 1 If the heroic endu- 
rance of suffering is to be embalmed in the memory, who 
deserves a brighter memorial than Anne Hazeltine Judson ? 

But to speak of all the examples of moral greatness asso- 
ciated with the missionary enterprise, is to speak of a number 
which " the time would fail me to tell." Who does not think 
of those men of the western wilderness who first taught us in 
modern times how the savage is to be reclaimed? Who does 
not think of the Moravian heroes of Greenland and Labrador 
in the north; of the early mission to Tranquebar in the east; 
and of those who first toiled and fell in Africa, south ? and 
who can think of them without feeling that, under God, they 
and their successors have served, and saved the character of, 
the Christian church? 

To admire self-devotion and noble daring in theory only is 
cheap virtue ; and yet, prior to the rise of missions, but few 

Holt's Missionary Anecdotes, p. 260. f Idem, p. 262. 

18* 



210 REFLEX SPIRITUAL BENEFITS OF 

Christians were doing more than this. If the rising offspring 
of religious parents would read of wasting privations endured, 
of dangers braved and vanquished, and of conflicts attempted 
and achieved, — the most attractive topics for the young, — they 
had to seek them in the pages of the enterprising merchant, 
the soldier, or the scientific traveller. To practise self denial 
which should be repaid only by conscience, to think of benefi- 
cence without fame, to do any thing more than admire the 
disinterested zeal of the reformers, confessors, and mission- 
aries of former times, would have been deemed not less im- 
practicable by the church, generally, than irrational by the 
world. Now, to the men who have been raised up by God in 
the service of modern missions we are greatly indebted for 
the termination of this guilty delusion. They have shown 
that the church need not be tame and uninteresting in its 
character ; that the world need not be allowed to monopolize 
all that is fascinating in youthful eyes ; that real greatness 
need not be suspended in the clouds, and admired as a rain- 
bow ; but that it may be brought down and imbodied in 
actual life. Who does not feel that their example has instru- 
mentally created in the church the atmosphere of a nobler 
piety, and that we are living under its influence? 

The lowest benefit they have conferred is, that they have 
robbed the apathetic of their plea; so that, till the voice of 
history shall be dumb, wherever an effort shall be made to 
invade the kingdom of darkness, their example will be present 
to silence the objection that, though the theory is good, it 
is impossible to put it in practice. There is virtue even in 
their memory. It imposes a restraint on the worldliness of 
thousands. As their professed admirers, we feel ourselves 
bound not to fall too glaringly below their standard of 
excellence. 

But if they are only preventing some from falling below 
a certain point, they are exciting numbers to rise. And who 
does not recognize the wisdom of God in appointing that 
some of the pioneers in the modern missionary field should 
have been giants in holy daring and strength? and as such, 
fitted to be exemplars to all who came after them in the same 
career. In the vocabulary of the church, their names have 
become synonymes for every species of active excellence. 
Eliot, Zeisberger, and Brainerd, are but other names for 
indefatigable labor and enterprise, and self-consuming ardor. 
We think of Svvartz, and the might of character. The ac- 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 211 

complished youth, panting to live for Christ in distant lands, 
but derided as a visionary, thinks of Martyn, and takes cour- 
age. Pious and disinterested poverty reads of Carey, and 
emerges from its humble cell to perform labors which excite 
the devout thanksgiving of the church. Faith looks at the 
origin and early history of the Moravian mission, and, undis- 
mayed by the scantiness of her human resources, girds up 
the loins of her mind, and addresses herself to her task afresh. 
Their biography is creating for the church a literature of its 
own. Their example is reproducing itself in a second race. 
To the influence of Brainerd the church is chiefly indebted, 
under God, for the labors of a Milne. The pious father gives 
their names to his sons, as a title of excellence, and an incite- 
ment to attain it. Their zeal for God has kindled a fire at 
which numbers daily are lighting their torch. And thus, in 
various ways, have they given ardor to holy activity, and mul- 
tiplied the power of truth ; while the church below unites 
with the church above in " glorifying God in them." 

11. Owing to some of the particulars last enumerated it 
is that the Christian church has been gradually awakened to 
the practicability of the missionary enterprise, and to the con- 
viction that it is the duty of all its members to espouse it. 
The rising children of the church may regard this duty as so 
self-evident that it could never have been doubted. They 
are to be assured, however, that its practical admission is but 
of recent date, and that their fathers in Christ had first to be 
convinced of it themselves, and then laboriously to convince 
others. They are to be assured that it was but as yesterday 
that Christians generally were regarding the enormous abom- 
inations of paganism with a kind of submissive awe, as if 
they had been inevitable conditions of humanity ; or, if they 
thought of their ultimate removal, it was expected only as 
the result of a miraculous intervention which it was almost 
presumptuous in them to urge, and in prospect of which it 
became them rather to " stand still and see the salvation of 
God." Meanwhile, the heathen were perishing through their 
neglect. He who had laid all their powers under tribute for 
the service, was " walking in the midst" of them, and repeat- 
ing, " Go into all the world, preach my gospel to every crea- 
ture," and the guilt of centuries of disobedience, accumulated 
at their door, was daily and hourly rising higher. Who, then, 
can duly estimate the magnitude of the benefit conferred on 
the church, by that instrumentality by which it has been 



212 REFLEX SPIRITUAL BENEFITS OF 

aroused to attempt the salvation of those heathen, to obey 
that high command, and, at least, to prevent that mountain 
of guilt from rising higher 1 Yet such is the nature of the 
benefit conferred by the missionary enterprise. Not only has 
it been the means of creating lofty specimens of individual 
Christian character, — it has given a new character to the col- 
lective church. The knowledge which it has circulated even 
in the most retired parts of the country, and among the lowest 
ranks of society, concerning the state of the heathen, has 
moved the compassion of the faithful generally. By the en- 
forcement of scriptural obligation on the subject, it has made 
them all feel, in different degrees, that every one can do 
something. By the organization of auxiliary societies, it has 
excited and engaged the aid of the humblest, and seeks to 
engage the cooperation of all. By the noble examples of 
self-consecration which it has placed before the church, num- 
bers have been led to inquire whether or not they are living 
as they ought for the conversion of the world. While, with 
each returning year, the sentiment of a thousand resolutions 
proposed at public meetings, and responded to by twice ten 
thousand hearts, is substantially this, — " that more must be 
done." In this way the church is becoming more than ever 
militant and aggressive. The spirit of missions is felt to be 
the true spirit of the gospel. The noblest ambition is aroused 
— the ambition of turning the world's darkness into an em- 
pire of light and peace. 

12. But by conferring this benefit on the church, and di- 
recting its attention to the state of the world, the missionary 
enterprise has been gradually reducing the strongholds of 
infidelity, and " taking from it the arms wherein it trusted." 
As far as the assaults of this monster evil have been made, at 
any time, against the grounds of our faith, Christians have 
only themselves to thank. That the world should voluntarily 
lay aside its hostility to holiness, do whatever the church 
may, is not to be expected ; but that hostility is divisible into 
two kinds — that which is directed against Christianity, and 
that which is aimed at its professors. And what Christian 
would not rather that it should be levelled at his own charac- 
ter, than at that of the gospel, or of his ever-blessed Lord ? 
And who does not perceive, judging from the history of the 
church, that Christians may generally choose which shall be 
the object of the world's attack — the gospel or its profess- 
ors ? Let them take the field, act on the aggressive, carry 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 213 

their arms into the enemies' country, and we hear scarcely a 
word against the truth of the gospel ; we give the world no 
leisure to indulge in speculative skepticism ; it finds enough 
to do in stigmatizing our character as hypocrites, enthusiasts, 
and fanatics. But let us quit the field, shut ourselves up in 
self-indulgence' within the walls of the church, and the world 
will advance, as an earthly army in similar circumstances 
would do, and will sap and mine our defences as the only 
means of reaching and destroying us. Our indolence, in that 
case, leaves it nothing else to do. 

Now the effect of modern missions, on the tactics of infi- 
delity, illustrates the truth of these remarks. Where now is 
the infidelity of Spinosa and the Pantheists; of Bayle and 
academic doubts; of Voltaire and ridicule; of Hume, Gib- 
bon, and Rousseau ? Since the missionary enterprise com- 
menced, it has almost entirely changed its ground and its 
weapons. Was it one of its favorite objections that the 
apathy of Christians for the heathen demonstrated that they 
did not believe their own book ? Every additional missionary 
that goes forth is assisting to convert that objection, from a 
weapon of attack, into a means of Christian defence. Was 
the extreme limitation of Christendom, as compared with the 
world at large, another of the objections on which it relied ? 
Every new region reclaimed from idolatry, and every addi- 
tional church planted in heathen lands, blunt the edge of this 
objection. After pointing with scorn at the contracted limits 
of Christendom, did it then pour ridicule on Christians for 
attempting to enlarge those bounds ? But this could have 
arisen only from the supposed impotence of the gospel by 
which they proposed to effect the change. So conspicuous, 
however, have been the triumphs of the cross, in many of the 
most hopeless parts of the heathen world, that even the magi- 
cians of worldly philosophy themselves begin to acknowledge 
that " this is the finger of God," and to despair of ever being 
able to " do the same with their enchantments." 

13. But besides assisting to disarm infidelity, the mission- 
ary enterprise has eminently promoted the cause of biblical 
study, augmented the evidences of Christianity, and propor- 
tionally increased our confidence in the divinity of its char- 
acter, and in the certainty of its ultimate triumphs. If 
sacred science be distributed into the critical or verbal, the 
devout or practical, and the scientific or theological, the cul- 
tivation of the first of these may be considered as laudably 



214 REFLEX SPIRITUAL BENEFITS OF 

characteristic of the present day. Now, whatever advantage 
may accrue from this source to the cause of truth in general, 
must be ascribed, partly, if not chiefly, to the influence of 
Christian missions. For by creating a demand for the circu- 
lation of the Holy Scriptures in heathen lands, and by secur- 
ing their translation into many of the languages of the earth, 
it has, in conjunction with the Bible Society, necessarily led 
to the unprecedented cultivation of this important branch of 
sacred study. And even as to the other departments, which 
we have specified, the influence of missions has conferred on 
the church a greater benefit than all the theological polem- 
ics of the last century ; for if it has not confuted any here- 
sy, it has rendered perhaps a still more important service, in 
causing some to be practically extinguished and forgotten. 
While, by the new demands which it has devolved on the 
church, and the new relations which we find ourselves called 
to sustain, the entire Bible has come to assume a compara- 
tively missionary character. Not merely single verses, but 
whole masses of truth, have acquired a meaning and an im- 
portance in our eyes, before unknown. 

The missionary enterprise has contributed in various ways 
to illustrate the divinity of the gospel. It assumes that men 
are every where the same — guilty and depraved. But who 
could be aware of the fact except " the God of the whole 
earth " ? When the gospel was written, vast regions of the 
earth remained to be explored, and populous countries to be 
discovered. How, then, could the writers of the gospel have 
accurately described the character of men in unknown lands, 
if they had not " spoken as they were moved by the Holy 
Ghost " ? Infidelity has often essayed to prove that the de- 
pravity of man admits of large exceptions; that in some states 
of society he is innocent ; and that nothing but the discovery 
of a new people was wanting to demonstrate the truth of its 
theory. Who, then, could sketch a likeness of man, which 
men of all times and tongues should recognize as their own, 
but he who " knew what was in man " ? By the same means, 
the universal adaptation of the gospel has received the most 
striking additional proof. Not only have missionaries in 
India been charged by the natives with forging its faithful 
delineations of heathenism after their arrival in that country, 
but when it has filled the soul with a sense of guilt approach- 
ing to agony, and which nothing human could allay, it has 
further demonstrated its divinity by saying, " Peace, be stilJ, 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 215 

and there was a great calm." How often has the convert 
from heathenism acknowledged, like Cupido, the well known 
Hottentot, that while listening to the gospel for the first time, 
he was compelled involuntarily to exclaim, " This is the truth ; 
that is what I want ! " At the bare announcement of the 
words, " The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from 
all sin," the devotee walking on spikes to atone for his 
guilt, has thrown off his torturing sandals, and exclaimed, 
" This is what I need," and has become " a living exposi- 
tion of the truth." " ' How beautiful, how tender, how 
kind/ — Anundo, a pupil in the General Assembly's school, 
Calcutta — was often heard to exclaim, while reading the 
Sermon on the Mount — ' How full of love and goodness ! 
O, how unlike the spirit and maxims of Hindooism ! Surely 
this is the truth ! ■ Never was there a more striking exempli- 
fication of what Owen calls ' the self-evidencing power of the 
Bible/ " * And so strong and sufficient does this self-com- 
mending internal evidence prove, that missionary converts 
are almost uniformly found to embrace the gospel independ- 
ently of its external proofs. But this circumstance itself is 
additional evidence in its behalf. Hindooism, without leav- 
ing its native land to challenge examination, has been falsified 
and disproved. The microscope alone has laid its pretensions 
in the dust, by proving that the Maker of infusoria and ani- 
malcula could not have been the author of its Shastres. Ge- 
ography has done the same for Mahometanism, by showing 
that the " God of the whole earth " could not have been the 
author of the Koran; for to require its disciples, during the 
Ramadan, to fast from the rising to the setting of the sun, is 
to proclaim its ignorance of the arctic and antarctic circles. 
But wherever Christianity has gone, it has derived additional 
evidence of its self-commending excellence and universal 
adaptation; thus strengthening our conviction that the Maker 
of man and the Author of the gospel is one — "the only 
living and true God." 

Still further is this conviction deepened by the illustration 
which the missionary enterprise affords of the saving pozoer 
of the gospel. Had the primitive Christians been perplexed 
with doubts concerning the sufficiency of the gospel to meet 
cases of extreme depravity, how eminently fitted was the con- 

* Holt, p. 129; furnished by Rev. Dr. Duff, in the Scots Presby- 
terian Review. 



216 REFLEX SPIRITUAL BENEFITS OF 

version of Saul of Tarsus to remove them ! After him, of 
whom need they despair ? Now, that the Christians of mod- 
ern times did very generally entertain doubts of this descrip- 
tion, is matter of authentic record. Whatever they might 
hope from its introduction among the civilized and inquiring, 
they were more than distrustful of its reception among the 
barbarous. How solemn but gracious a rebuke, then, have 
missionary successes been the means of administering to our 
unbelief, and what illustrious evidence have they supplied 
that the gospel is still " the power of God unto salvation to 
every one that believeth." If Christianity has conquered 
Tahiti and Labrador, New Zealand and Caffraria, what 
country can stand before it when accompanied by the grace 
of its Author ? 

In the history of its progress we recognize almost every 
display of gracious power of which the mind can conceive. 
It has melted the inflexible Iroquois into penitence and tears ; 
and has enabled the shrinking Hindoo to brave the loss of 
caste and the martyr's pangs. By a mightier exorcism than 
the negro or the Esquimaux had ever imagined, it has deliv- 
ered the one from the enslaving fears of the Obeah, and cast 
out the terrible Torngak from the creed of the other. What 
other evidence of its power can be necessary ? Under its 
subduing and humanizing influence, the convert from the 
frozen zone has been hailed as a brother in Christ by the 
Christian Indian in his native wilderness, and the once sav- 
age warrior of America has sent letters of peace and love to 
the fisher of Greenland. At its sound the barbarian veteran 
of a hundred battles, and of a hundred years, has become a 
little child ; and a host of warriors, each of whom would once 
have preferred death to a tear, have wept, " so that there was 
a very great mourning, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon." * 
What other evidence can be necessary 1 Instruments which 
had never been used but for war and murder, it has converted 
to useful and even sacred purposes ; f and tribes which had 
never met but in deadly conflict, it assembles together around 
the table of the Lord. It has declined no contest through 
fear of defeat ; and wherever it has gone, it has erected mon- 
uments of its saving power. 

What other evidence can be necessary 1 To my mind, 

* Brainerd's Journal. 

t Ellis's Polynesian Researches, vol. ii. p. 519. 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 217 

says the eloquent Richard Watson, there is nothing in the 
history of the church which so strikingly exhibits the power 
of our religion, as its triumphs over the moral evils so uni- 
formly and necessarily inherent in a system of slavery. Glo- 
rious were the effects of Christianity among the slaves of the 
ancient world. It gave cheerfulness to submission, and pa- 
tience to wrong; it created charity where gratitude could 
have no place ; shut the lip of reproach, and silenced mur- 
muring. But owing to the greater evils of modern slavery, 
religion, in our colonies, has triumphed more gloriously still. 
Its light has penetrated, so to speak, the solid darkness of 
mind left without instruction ; it has struck the chords of 
feeling in hearts unaccustomed to salutary emotion ; it has 
reconciled man to the degradation of color and feature : it 
has produced charity towards those who have dealt out to 
them the most humbling kinds of insult ; breathed over pas- 
sions, which when once awakened are terrible, the calm of 
resignation ; and taught the spirit, spurned from every other 
resting-place, to rest in God, and to wait for his salvation. 

What other evidence of its power can be necessary? 
Among its converts are men whose depravity would have 
compared with that of a Jeroboam, a Manasseh, or a Saul of 
Tarsus; — Ananke, the Esquimaux murderer; and the Mo- 
hican, Tschoop, a monster of debauchery and vice ; Afri- 
caner, the plunderer of neighboring tribes, and the destroyer 
of missionary settlements ; Tamatoa, once blasphemously 
worshipped as a god ; Vaza, the procurer of human sacri- 
fices ; and Romatane, the devastator of islands. By the min- 
istry of the gospel, the Savior speaks to them as from heaven, 
and " behold, they pray ! " The epitome of vice becomes 
an epistle of Christ. The demon is transformed into " a 
pattern of the believers.' 5 The sanguinary chief is the first 
to beseech and adjure, with tears of entreaty, those to whom 
his name had been a terror, and whose race he had almost 
exterminated, to embrace salvation. What other evidence 
of its power can be necessary ? If the success of the gos- 
pel on its first promulgation forms an evidence of its divinity, 
the success of the modern missionary enterprise must be re- 
ceived as an additional evidence to the same effect. It has 
been attended with spiritual triumphs of the same kind, and 
which can only be resolved into the same supernatural cause. 
Then surely our confidence in its sufficiency, as the instru- 
ment of human salvation, should be proportionallv increased. 
19 



218 REFLEX SPIRITUAL BENEFITS OF 

Thus it was with the apostles. And if doubts of the divine 
sufficiency of the gospel ever haunted our minds, imparting 
feebleness to its ministry, and creating indifference as to its 
diffusion, what should, what must be the effect of its subse- 
quent triumphs, but to impart ardor to our activity, and earn- 
estness to our prayers, and a moral dignity to our onward 
step, eminently conducive, through God, to still greater suc- 
cess. 

14. And not only has the missionary enterprise increased 
our confidence in the final conversion of the heathen, — it has 
been attended by the salvation of many of our own country- 
men, both at home and abroad. In commencing our remarks 
on the reflex spiritual influence of Christian missions, we 
adverted to the service they had incidentally rendered the 
church in helping to break up the prevailing monotony of 
its religious occupations. Who can doubt but that, humanly 
speaking, many a youth whom that monotony would have re- 
pelled, has been held, by the new attraction of Christian 
activity, in allegiance to the outward service of God, till 
renewing grace has changed his heart? And who can ques- 
tion but that the missionary spirit, thus excited and bound 
up with early associations, has given its character to the man, 
and is animating and determining the useful course of many, 
who, but for this, would have been lost to the church, and 
devoted to the world ? Indeed, the conversion of some has 
actually taken place, not in the sanctuary, and by the ordi- 
nary means of grace, but at the public meetings of our reli- 
gious societies. 

Still more marked have been the saving effects of the mis- 
sionary cause upon our countrymen abroad. Between thirty 
and forty years ago, Buchanan wrote, " There are not ten 
righteous men to be found in Calcutta." " At that time," 
says another missionary, " you might have travelled from one 
extremity of India to the other, and have found no premoni- 
tion of the Sabbath-day except the waving of flags at the 
military stations. As to the mercantile classes, to have 
closed a single house of agency on the Sabbath, would have 
been looked on as a strange deviation from the customs of 
commercial life. Now, it would be deemed as strange a de- 
parture from decorum in India, were a single commercial 
house to keep open its doors on that sacred day." Then, 
many of our countrymen went there, not only almost as much 
strangers to the gospel of peace as were the Hindoos and 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 219 

Mahometans themselves, but, amidst the polluting influence 
of heathenism, they became ten times more the children of 
hell than they were before they left their native shores. Now, 
among all classes, but especially the various armies in her 
Majesty's and in the Honorable Company's service, a redeem- 
ing change is exhibited to a most remarkable extent. Many 
an officer emulates the " centurion of the Italian band," in 
devout and active piety. Many a regiment has its " praying 
company," and its active agents of Christian benevolence. 
Many a prodigal has there been met by missionary instru- 
mentality ; has himself become a missionary, and preached 
the faith which he once destroyed; and many others, after 
an absence in India of ten, fifteen, or twenty years, have 
returned to be the means of the conversion of their own 
parents, and to prove distinguished blessings where once 
they had been a curse. 

15. And innumerable are the occasions with which Chris- 
tian missions have furnished the church for glorifying God, 
Not only did the design itself originate with God, in the 
sense of its being a duty to be found in his gospel, but, on 
looking back and remembering the stony indifference to that 
design evinced by the church in general ; and the actual 
opposition to the first steps of the missionary enterprise, 
offered by many a professed Christian; and the truly insig- 
nificant measures in which the work began — measures in 
which the actors often owed their toleration to contempt — 
who can doubt that the primary human movers were them- 
selves moved by God? If the apostle could say of the prim- 
itive churches, " They glorified God in me," how often have 
we been constrained to recognize the hand of God in raising 
up and baptizing with a measure of the apostolic spirit many 
a modern missionary ! If they acknowledge the divine super- 
intendence in selecting their spheres of labor, and preparing 
the way for their successful occupation, how often have we 
been called to adore the presence of the same agency in the 
missionary field, manifested in unexpected interpositions, in 
the universal concurrence of multiplied and repellent cir- 
cumstances, and in the issue of the whole in some most un- 
foreseen success ! How many a burst of sacred joy has been 
occasioned by the intelligence of new conquests achieved over 
heathenism, and new honors accumulated around the name 
we love — joy, the most pure, ennobling, and rich, which 
grace can awaken in the faithful on earth, and which, more 



220 REFLEX SPIRITUAL BENEFITS OF 

than any other sentiment, connects the church below with 
the church above in one spontaneous ascription of praise. 

As to the manner in which some of the most distinguished 
of these triumphs were won, — who can mark the sudden 
abandonment of idolatry in the Polynesian islands north and 
south ; in the latter, when the mission was on the point of 
being relinquished in despair ; and in the former, by the 
spontaneous will of the natives before any missionary had 
reached them, without perceiving how evidently God designed 
to secure the glory of the work to himself? How often and 
how emphatically have we been taught the same lesson by 
the superior success which has crowned the artless efforts of 
the native teachers — success which has frequently left the 
British missionary nothing to do, but, like Barnabas, to go 
and see the grace of God, and be glad. On comparing the 
missionary contributions and activity of the churches at pres- 
ent — small as they still are — with the apathy of the past, 
and remembering the grandeur of the results to which they 
tend, how many a Christian has been led to say with the 
mingled abasement and gratitude of David, " Who am I, and 
what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly 
after this sort ... to build thee a house for thine holy name ? " 
What deep humiliation has been felt by thousands — and 
never perhaps was more deeply felt than at this moment — 
at the fact that the heathen world is crying to us for spiritual 
help, and perishing in its cries ; that God is saying to us by 
his word and providence, " Hasten to their relief with the 
gospel/ 5 and yet that we should be so deplorably unprepared 
to obey ! What grateful admiration, that God should have 
afforded us so many distinguished proofs that he is still in the 
midst of us ; and what earnest entreaties that he would arouse 
the entire church to a sense of its new and vast obligations, 
and would graciously pour out upon us his Spirit from on 
high! The direct tendency of all our missionary operations 
hitherto, is to bring the church on its knees before God in 
unfeigned gratitude for the past, and entire dependence for 
the future ; prepared to inscribe on the sublime result of the 
whole, " To the praise of the glory of his grace.' 5 

From this review of the spiritual benefits of Christian mis- 
sions on the churches at home, we repeat the question with 
which the section commenced, in the full expectation that it 
admits but of one reply — Had the same amount of effort 
which the missionary object has received been devoted to the 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 221 

diffusion of piety at home, is there any reason to conclude 
that our country would have reaped greater advantage than 
it is now enjoying from the reflex influence of that object? 
Is it likely that more would have been done to impress a deep, 
salutary, and general conviction of the infinite importance of 
the gospel ; more to call forth the resources and multiply the 
agencies of Christian usefulness; more to counteract the 
worldliness of the church, and to give enlargement and eleva- 
tion to its views and affections ; more to illustrate the excel- 
lence, and to raise the standard, of Christian charity ; more 
to silence the irreligious objector, to engage the intercessions 
of the faithful in the behalf of the world, to fill us with devout 
dependence and holy anticipation for the future, and to pre- 
pare the church to arise and shine as the light of the world, 
and to prove, through God, a universal blessing? So far 
from this, we venture to affirm that not only would less have 
been done in all these respects, but that, humanly speaking, 
had it not been for the influence of the missionary cause, 
many a society now in active operation expressly for home 
would never have come into existence; many a heart, which 
now beats high with a hallowed patriotism, would have been 
cold to the claims of home ; and many a Christian church, 
now known as the centre of a large circumference of local 
benevolence, would have been comparatively living to itself. 
And, indeed, what is all this but saying, in effect, that the 
history of Christian missions will eventually be found to 
furnish a grand illustration of that sublime principle of a 
kingdom founded in love, that " it is more blessed to give 
than to receive " ? 



CHAPTER IV 



ARGUMENT DERIVED FROM THE BENEFITS OF CHRISTIAN 
MISSIONS FOR THE INCREASED ACTIVITY OF THE 
CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 

If the Christian church is expressly designed to imbody 

and diffuse the influence of the cross, and if its full efficiency 

for this end depends, under God, on the entireness of its 

consecration to this office, we may expect to find that every 

19 * 



222 THE BENEFITS OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 

page of its history illustrates and corroborates the fact. Such 
is the remaik with which we opened this Second Part. But 
as the nature and limits of our subject forbade us to open the 
volume of ecclesiastical history, we contented ourselves with 
remarking generally, that the period of the first and greatest 
activity of the church was the season of its greatest prosper- 
ity ; that the subsequent decline of its devotedness was the 
decline of its prosperity ; and that, as every departure of the 
church from its missionary design has been invariably avenged, 
so every return to that character may be expected to be di- 
vinely acknowledged and blessed. Such a return, in part, 
we professed to recognize in the operations and aims of our 
Protestant missions. And the subsequent chapters have been 
intended to enable us to show, that, as far as their history is 
concerned, it may be made most clearly and impressively 
evident that every step in return to the aggressive design of 
the Christian church is a proportionate return to its first 
prosperity. It remains, therefore, that we make such use of 
those chapters as shall tend to render this fact apparent ; thus 
connecting them with the former part, and strengthening the 
whole by enforcing the additional motive supplied to entire 
Christian consecration. 

I. Now, this may be done by showing, first, that our mis- 
sionary success has been fully proportioned to our efforts. 
Perhaps the only persons disposed to question this proportion 
of success will be found among those who would have been 
the last to commence those efforts. For it is characteristic 
of a certain class, that though they would never have origi- 
nated an enterprise, they are among the earliest and the 
loudest in their complaints if it is not speedily crowned with 
complete success. No sooner do they awake from the slum- 
ber of doing nothing, than they seem to expect that every 
thing will rush to their aid, and are mortified at finding that 
they are doomed, like all their predecessors, to work by means 
and not by charms. But we would ask such persons, what 
is the standard by which, in the present instance, they regu- 
late their expectations of success. Is it by the rapidity with 
which the gospel was diffused in apostolic times ? But surely 
they do not expect this, independently of the zeal, self-denial, 
and earnest supplications which distinguished those times. 
Or would they say that the proportion of success now is 
much less, as compared with the means employed, than it 



AN ARGUMENT FOR INCREASED ACTIVITY. 223 

was at that time, even allowing for the present diminution of 
zeal ? But how is the rate of this diminution to be ascer 
tained ? and yet, until it is, an essential element of the ques- 
tion remains undetermined. The truth is, that although the 
church of late has begun to exhibit a spirit of missionary 
activity, of zeal it knows comparatively little. We might 
ask the persons supposed, for instance, How many years, or 
rather how many hours, have you given to this object of your 
professed solicitude 1 To how many seasons of wrestling in 
prayer with God ; and to how many acts of practical self- 
denial ; and to how many efforts to enkindle the zeal of 
others, has it led ? Do you not think that it will be high 
time for you to complain of slender success, when you can 
return a less self-condemnatory answer to inquiries such 
as these ? 

Or, would they regulate their expectations of success 
abroad by the standard of home ? But we have shown, in 
a preceding chapter, that much of our domestic prosperity 
itself is ascribable, under God, to the reflex influence of our 
evangelical operations abroad. Independently of this, how- 
ever, could we only bring together the happy results of those 
operations from the various parts of the wide field over which 
they are scattered, and place them beside the fruits which 
religion has reaped within the same period at home, — making, 
of course, the necessary allowance for the vast disproportion 
of means, — we should see that, if these fruits at home call 
for ordinary thankfulness, the results abroad demand the 
loftiest ascriptions of praise. 

Are we asked, then, to sum up the benefits resulting from 
Christian missions ? Enumerate them we can, and have ; 
but estimate their value we cannot. We have no standard 
by which to rate the worth of even their temporal, much less 
of their spiritual advantages. We can refer the inquirer to 
the temporal good they confer on the land which sends them 
forth ; and if he be a patriot, he will rejoice to hear of it. 
But unless he can furnish us with an instrument for deter- 
mining the value of literature and science ; of correct and 
enlarged views of the actual condition of man; of our own 
national character ; of human life ; of commerce ; and of 
safety and supplies for our shipping ; we must leave the pre- 
cise worth of that good to his own imagination ; for in all 
these respects have they been eminently useful. Does he ask 
for vouchers? Let him consult the records of learned socie- 



224 THE BENEFITS OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 

ties ; the voluntary testimony of disinterested travellers ; the 
" Evidence on the Aborigines; " the incidental as well as 
direct testimony in official reports and government returns, 
to all of which w r e have distinctly referred. Let him ask the 
crew just liberated from cannibal hands, at what price they 
rate the value of the missionary influence which has saved 
them — and let him ascertain how many crews would by this 
time have been sacrificed but for that influence ; or what 
would have been the amount of the waste of European life 
before commerce could have obtained even a footing in those 
barbarous regions where, owing to that same influence, it 
now finds a welcome and a home ? Let him do this, and we 
will leave him to his own conclusions respecting its value. 

Is he a philanthropist ? We can take him into the distant 
missionary field, and point him to happy homes and peaceful 
villages rising amidst wastes where lately man roamed restless 
and ferocious as the beasts with which he contested for 
supremacy; to multitudes, now diligently busied in the arts 
of civilized life, whose hands were but yesterday red with the 
blood of their fellows ; to thousands of children and adults, 
trooping to their respective schools, where, a short time ago, 
all the visible signs of a language were utterly unknown; to 
organized societies and the ascendency of law, where, but 
recently, to be lawless was reckoned essential to enjoyment, 
and to kill at pleasure the highest prerogative ; to sober, 
honest, highly moralized countries, where, lately, rage and 
intemperance revelled at will ; to tribes which till lately never 
met but for mutual destruction, but whose intercourse now 
consists entirely in the reciprocation of benefits and tokens 
of love ; to the animalized savage, acting the man ; to the 
debased slave, now walking at large as an heir of freedom ; 
to degraded woman, raised from the dust and restored to be 
the partner of man ; to hundreds of thousands rescued from 
the curse of the darkest idolatry, and brought into the light 
of truth, and surrounded with the means of social improve- 
ment and unending happpiness. But this is not enough. 
Having surveyed the happy change, let him place in strong 
imaginary contrast with it what would probably have been at 
this moment the actual state of all those human beings had it 
not been for missionary intervention. Let him imagine how 
many of those women and slaves would have pined and per- 
ished under brutal oppression ; how certainly those imple- 
ments of peace would all have been in request as weapons 



AN ARGUMENT FOR INCREASED ACTIVITY. 225 

of murder and war ; how many of those children would have 
been immolated; how many of those islands would have been 
depopulated, and of those tribes exterminated ; and then, in 
what way the wretched survivors would most likely have been 
now employed. Let him then say, if he can, what is the 
value of the change which has been produced ; of the knowl- 
edge by which all that ignorance which was in actual posses- 
sion has been displaced ; of the morality and freedom by 
which all that vice, bondage, and idolatry have been swept 
away ; of the humanity by which that effusion of human blood 
has been prevented, and all those lives been saved ; and of 
those moral principles, and social habits, by which all that 
has yet taken place will only be employed as means of im- 
provement for all the future. Let him do this, and we will 
tell him the worth of the missionary enterprise to the cause 
of philanthropy. 

Or, is he who urges the inquiry a Christian ? To you, we 
might reply, to you we can speak of spiritual results. Not 
that you value the temporal benefits less than the patriot or 
the philanthropist, for you are both ; but that you value the 
spiritual blessings more. Tell us, if you can, how all the 
property by which the missionary object has been sustained 
would have been employed; how all the time would have 
been spent which has been occupied in collecting, pleading, 
and laboring for the object, or in reading and hearing of it ; 
and what would have been the character of all the myriads 
of thoughts and feelings which would, during that time, have 
left their eternal signature on the mind, had that object never 
existed to engage and engross it ; for, in order to compute 
its value, it is necessary to know the evil which it has been 
the means of preventing, as well as the positive good which 
it has been instrumental in producing. Tell us, if you can, 
the value of that knowledge which maketh wise unto salva- 
tion ; of that love which passeth knowledge ; and of that peace 
which passeth all understanding — and we will tell you the 
worth of missionary instrumentality, for it has been the means 
of imparting all these to thousands. Tell us, in answer to 
the question of our common Lord, " What shall it profit a 
man if he gain the whole world, and yet lose his own soul?" — 
and from the amount of that fearful loss we will compute the 
gain of missionary instrumentality, for it has been the means 
of saving the souls of thousands. Tell us, or ask the re- 
deemed in glory to tell, by what line we can sound the depths 



226 THE BENEFITS OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 

of that pit from which they have escaped, — by what scale 
we can take the height of the bliss to which they have 
attained, — or where are the balances in which we can lay 
an eternal weight of glory, and we will tell you the value of 
missionary labor ; for it has instrumentally saved thousands 
from hell, and prepared them for heaven. Think of the state 
in which the Christian missionary found " the nations of 
them that are saved; " — of that horrid system composed of 
lies, and crimes, and curses, and woes, which he found in 
tyrannical possession ; of the dreadful aspect with which it 
confronted heaven ; of its mad devotedness to the spirit and 
purposes of hell. But now, see, the whole has vanished. 
The first house they build is the house of God. Almost 
their only book is the Bible. Among their days they now 
number and keep holy the Christian Sabbath. And almost 
the only form of society they know is that of the Christian 
church. " Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men," and 
he graciously dwells among them. If you could not have 
looked down, with Balaam, upon the vast encampments of 
Israel on the plains of Moab, without emotions of delight ; if 
you could not have witnessed the scenes of Pentecost, or have 
" seen the grace of God at Antioch," without being " glad; " 
how can you adequately express your gratitude and joy at 
beholding these fruits of Christian missions 1 If you are truly 
conscious of Christian compassion, think of all the bodily 
sufferings, the moral evils, the mental anguish, which they 
have been the means of preventing or removing ; of the hope, 
and peace, and joy, they have imparted on earth ; of that 
" wrath to come " from which they have instrumentally 
snatched immortal souls; and of that "joy of your Lord," 
to which they have introduced them ; and you will fall down 
afresh and bless God for the honor which he has put on the 
missionary enterprise. If you are sincerely "jealous for the 
Lord of hosts," think of all the instances in which they have 
been the means of converting idol temples into places of 
Christian worship ; of disparaging idolatry in the very spot 
where for ages it had reigned ; and of calling the idolater 
himself to join in the worship of the only living and true God. 
And think what honor has, in every such instance, been put 
on the love of the Father, on the mediation of Christ, and on 
the agency of the Holy Spirit ; with what infinite compla- 
cency they have contemplated the glorious change ; and what 
strains of seraphic joy it has called forth among the angels 



AN ARGUMENT FOR INCREASED ACTIVITY. 227 

of God ; and you will gratefully acknowledge, with a depth 
of conviction which perhaps you never felt before, that our 
missionary success has immeasurably exceeded the propor- 
tion of our efforts. 

Yes, exceeded ! for think how recently those efforts were 
commenced. The generation that began them has not yet 
entirely passed away. How much of the short time which 
has since elapsed has been necessarily consumed in prepara- 
tory work ; in learning the languages of the people visited ; 
translating the Scriptures into those languages ; preparing 
elementary books ; instructing the natives to read ; in erect- 
ing the requisite machinery, and bringing it into working 
order ! How many alterations and improvements have been 
suggested ; and how much we had to learn, as to the best 
method of conducting missionary labors ! And how small a 
proportion of the church even yet is zealously engaged in 
promoting them ! Many of these disheartening considerations 
were graciously allowed to remain hidden from the eyes of 
those who originated the missionary enterprise. But could we 
ask the most sanguine among them whether, notwithstanding, 
the event had equalled their first expectations of success, 
and could we show them at the same time all the salutary 
influence which that enterprise has reflected on the cause of 
religion at home, we should hear from them all a repetition 
of the grateful language, so often on their lips, " What hath 
God wrought ! He hath done exceeding abundantly above 
all we asked or thought ! " 

Nor have our missionary successes exceeded our expecta- 
tions in a single respect only. They have been the means 
of accomplishing good of a kind which we did not contem- 
plate. Who thought, for instance, of their benefiting the 
slave in any but a religious respect % And had any one been 
heard to pray that they might lead to his emancipation, he 
would certainly have been silenced for his indiscretion or his 
presumption. So remote was such an issue from our views, 
that for years our missionaries rather concealed the miseries 
of the slave, lest, by displeasing the planter, they should be 
denied access to the objects of their solicitude. And yet to 
missionary influence, under God, the abolition of slavery is 
unquestionably to be ascribed. 

Nor has the sphere of this influence less exceeded our ex- 
pectations than the kind of good which it has effected. We 
thought only of sending the gospel to heathen lands ; but 



228 THE BENEFITS OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 

our own country 2 as we have seen, has been a gainer, by the 
enterprise, of the richest blessings. 

And as in the sphere, so in the time when this reflex influ- 
ence began to operate. While we were calculating on the 
good to result to others in a coming period, we found ourselves 
in actual possession. In merely designing to bless, we our- 
selves were blessed. The benefit flowing from Christian 
missions dates, not from the first year of their existence, nor 
from their first hour, but from their earliest moment. From 
that auspicious moment to the present, they have been dis- 
charging on the churches, generally, showers of the richest 
influence. And have they been the means of doing so much 
good ? Why did we not begin them sooner ? and why are 
we not now prosecuting them with greater zeal ? 

II. We may expect to find also that advantages have flowed 
from our returning activity which nothing else could have 
conferred. And the reason of this is sufficiently obvious ; — 
the planet is now moving in its appointed orbit ; the church 
is advancing in a line with the purposes of omnipotence, and 
in harmony with its own principles. If, before, it had been 
hampered with forms, customs, and corruptions, at every 
effort which it now makes to move, some portion of these old 
incrustations of evil fall off; a desire to advance aright 
sends it to consult the Word of God ; a concern to retrieve 
its past indolence fills it with a zeal that calls on " all men 
every where to repent; " the conversions which ensue furnish 
it with a means of enlarging its sphere of activity. The 
existence of all this both proves the presence of the Divine 
Spirit in the midst of it, and leads it to earnest cries for still 
larger effusions of his influence; and thus, by action and 
reaction, an increase of its prosperity leads to importunate 
prayer for larger impartations of the Spirit, and larger im- 
partations of the Spirit necessarily produce an increase of 
divine prosperity. 

Let us look at the Christians and Christian denomina- 
tions of Britain at present ; and say, what but their activity 
for God, and the salutary effects of that activity on them- 
selves, constitute the sign and means of their visible prosper- 
ity? Take away this, and what single feature would remain 
on which the spiritual eye could rest with pleasure ? Their 
orthodoxy ? That would be their condemnation ; for, if 
their creed be scriptural, activity and zeal for God are neces- 
sary, if only to make them consistent with themselves. The 



AN ARGUMENT FOR INCREASED ACTIVITY. 229 

numbers they include ? The world outnumbers them ; and 
it is only by their aggressive activity, blessed by God, that 
they can hope to keep their disproportion from increasing. 
Their liberality? Apart from this Christian activity, where 
would be the calls on that liberality ? It is this which brings 
it into exercise, and by exercise augments it. Their union 
with each other ? This activity for enlarging the kingdom 
of Christ is almost the only bond which, at present, does 
unite them ; take away this, and nearly the last ligament of 
their visible union would be snapped. Their spirit of prayer 1 
That has been called into exercise almost entirely by means 
of their Christian activity ; for, feeling the utter insufficiency 
of their own endeavors, they have earnestly entreated God to 
make bare his arm in their behalf. 

From our returning activity, then, in the cause of human 
salvation, advantages have resulted which nothing else could 
have conferred. Amidst scenes of political strife, it has 
brought to us visions of a kingdom which is not of this 
world. Amidst scenes of ecclesiastical discord, it has pro- 
vided one standard around which all can rally against the 
common foe. Amidst the icy selfishness of the world around, 
it has called forth warm streams of Christian liberality. It 
has given employment to energies which would otherwise 
have been wasted in the arena of angry controversy. It has 
been the means of originating various institutions, which are 
destined to hasten the great consummation ; and of calling into 
existence specimens of Christian excellence and heroism of 
which the world is not worthy. To the visible church it has 
given a heart, stirred its deepest sympathies for the world, 
brought considerable accessions to its numbers, imparted ad- 
ditional interest to its services, enlivened its piety, enlarged 
its views, and brightened its visions of the reign of Christ. 
It has been the means of disarming infidelity of some of its 
most specious objections, illustrated afresh the divinity of the 
gospel, increased the confidence of Christians in its ultimate 
triumphs, and furnished them with some of the most remark- 
able occasions for ascribing glory to God. Many of them it 
has filled with a sense of self-dissatisfaction, of utter depend- 
ence on God, of aching want and craving desire for some- 
thing more and something better for the church than it yet 
possesses ; so that their loudest prayers are prayers for the 
promised outpouring of the Holy Spirit. From all of which 
we infer, that a full return in faith and prayer to the aggres- 
20 



230 THE BENEFITS OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 

sive design of the Christian church, would be a full return 
to its original prosperity. 

III. But this is farther apparent, and the whole of this 
second'Part connects itself with the former by the important 
fact that the history which it details of the missionary enter- 
prise remarkably illustrates every particular there advanced 
on the theory of Christian influence. This, indeed, might 
have been expected ; for it is only saying that the same prin- 
ciples, when pat into operation under the same circumstances, 
produce the same effects. Accordingly, the records of 
modern missions might easily be made to furnish the most 
striking comment on the " Acts of the Apostles," and to 
illustrate every principle of the missionary constitution of 
the church. 

How strikingly do they exemplify at once the attractive 
and the expansive power of the cross of Christ ! Here is 
an humble individual, a Carey or a Mills, a Hall or an Ege'a'e, 
meditating in solitude an attempt to convert the heathen. 
Never, surely, was project more remote from the sphere of 
worldly calculation. It is almost beyond the range even of 
ordinary Christian sympathy. What is to account for it? 
Has some personal command, or supernatural visitation, 
called him by name to undertake the work ? No, the love 
of Christ alone constrains him ; and the known requirements 
of Christianity are his authority. The ignorant may pity 
him as foolish, the irreligious may pronounce him mad, and 
even his professed fellow-Christians may deem him rash and 
zealous overmuch. But he is simply " thus judging," that if 
the world is perishing, and if Christ died for its redemption, 
he, knowing the fact, is bound to proclaim it. He " cannot 
but speak the things which he has seen and heard." 

Months, perhaps years, elapse, but still the fire of his pur- 
pose burns on with unabated strength. Reflection and prayer 
only increase its ardor : at length, he finds, with untold de- 
light, that, like the caloric diffused through physical sub- 
stances, the principle of benevolence lying dormant in the 
heart of some with whom he holds communion, is beginning 
to disengage by collision, and to ignite into a flame of sym- 
pathetic Christian zeal. They join him in prayer, aid his 
resources, and urge him to depart " far hence among the Gen- 
tiles." 

If we follow him, after a while, to the scene of his mis- 



AN ARGUMENT FOR INCREASED ACTIVITY. 231 

sionary labors, what is the spectacle we behold? To an 
uninstructed observer we might say, See you those savages 
sitting, mourning, and melting around him ? He is telling 
them the tale of the cross. Do you remark how the stolid 
countenances of others are awakening into intelligence, and 
their very attitudes indicating an anxiety to understand ? 
" Jesus Christ has been evidently set forth crucified among 
them," Do you observe how others are busily occupied in 
building around? — Blessed Savior, thou hast triumphed; 
thou art drawing all men unto thee ! — for, in effect, they 
are building around the cross ! Abandoning their idols and 
their wandering habits, they have found the true centre of 
attraction, and rejoice to be near it. " It was when I dis- 
coursed to the multitude," says Brainerd, " on that sacred 
passage, ' Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him/ that the 
word was attended with a resistless power; many hundreds 
in that great assembly, consisting of three or four thousand, 
were much affected, so that there was a very great mourning, 
like to the mourning of Hadadrimmon." " How was that ? " 
said the affected Kaiarnac, when, after the " rationalizing 
process" had long been tried on the Greenlanders in vain, 
the history of our Lord's sufferings was at length read to 
them — " How was that? tell me that once more, for I would 
fain be saved too." 

But if the gospel of Christ possesses this power of subdu- 
ing the heart to its own expansive purposes, we may expect to 
see even the converted savage attempting the conversion of 
those around him. Nor do we expect this in vain. Kaiarnac 
himself is an illustration in point. " His family, consisting 
of nine persons, were the first that were brought under con- 
viction by his words and conduct ; and before the month was 
over, three large families of natives came, with all their 
effects, and pitched their tents beside the dwellings of the 
Moravians."* Thus the gospel extends its influence from 
the individual to the family, and from the family to the 
neighborhood. 

"'The natives," writes a missionary in New Zealand, " are 
beginning to itinerate among their countrymen to preach the 
gospel. Surely good times are near at hand for this country. 
The desire which some of the young men manifest for the 
salvation of the souls of their countrymen evidently points 

* Carne, vol. i. p. 237. 



232 THE BENEFITS OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 

out the nature of the religion which they profess." * In one 
station we behold a vast assembly of native converts ad- 
dressed by Christian chiefs and others, and urged by compas- 
sion for " lost souls/' and by gratitude for their own salva- 
tion, to embark in a missionary enterprise among the idolaters 
beyond. In another we hear a venerable chief lamenting in 
the midst of his people that he is not young enough to go on 
such an errand of mercy, and praying that the churches of 
the station might be honored to " supply brethren to bear the 
gospel to more populous lands." Elsewhere, we hear the 
chief of one island, who has sailed far to address the chiefs 
of another, exclaiming, at the close of his earnest appeal, 
" Grasp with a firm hold the word of Jehovah; for this alone 
can make you a peaceable and happy people. I should have 
died a savage, had it not been for the gospel." And there, 
another, under similar circumstances, exclaiming, as he steps 
forward and seizes the heathen chief by the hand, " Rise, 
brother, tear off the garb of Satan, and become a man of 
God." 

The inhabitants of eight islands, says one of the witnesses 
in the " Evidence on the Aborigines," were entirely con- 
verted to Christianity by the agency of native mission- 
aries We have about sixty or seventy, and that number 

is increasing ; because, wherever the gospel is attended with 
beneficial effects, a new agency is created there for its still fur- 
ther propagation The original station was only one 

island, that of Tahiti ; and the knowledge of Christianity 
was conveyed to the islands where the American missionaries 
are, and to the Friendly Islands, by native agency. We have 
forty or fifty islands under instruction at the present time by 
native agency. 

What a strong scriptural illustration of the expansive 
power of the gospel is here ! " The Spirit and the bride say, 
Come." Every church regards itself as a missionary society. 
Some of their first property was sent home to aid the cause 
of missions. Their best men are called forth and devoted to 
the missionary office. With a simplicity and singleness of 
purpose worthy of apostolic times, they go forth, often at the 
imminent hazard of their lives, to proclaim salvation to remoter 
islands. And wherever they have proceeded hitherto, unex- 
ampled success has attended their labors, " the Lord working 

* Evidence on the Aborigines, pp. 121, 122. 



AN ARGUMENT FOR INCREASED ACTIVITY. 233 

with them." And thus the distant field of missionary labor 
presents at this moment the noble spectacle of a vast sphere 
in Christian activity. Not for itself merely, but for an ever- 
enlarging circumference beyond. 

IV. Now, what a powerful motive should all this supply to 
the increase of our missionary zeal ! If every event of Provi- 
dence has a voice and a lesson, the only interpretation we can 
give to the language uttered by our missionary success, is that 
of one unbroken call to greater diligence. After makinor the 
preceding circuit of the missionary field, and taking a survey 
of the results of our past attempts, can we return into the 
presence of the Lord of the harvest without feeling how 
justly he might say to us, as he did to his disciples at the 
close of their first itineracy, "Lacked ye any thing?" and 
how confidently he might await the same reply, " Nothing, 
Lord." You were ignorant, he might continue to say, and 
one of the direct tendencies of my dispensations towards you 
has been to instruct you in the heavenly art of doing good. 
You were fearful and unbelieving ; and I rebuked your 
doubts, not in judgment, but by affording you unexpected 
disclosures of my resources and my grace. You had enemies ; 
many of them exist no longer : others I have changed into 
friends ; and of those that remain I have taught you to 
believe that " their end draweth nigh." From many a scene 
of apparently fruitless labor you were inclined to withdraw 
dejected ; but I gave you grace to persevere, and Heaven 
heard the result in your grateful shouts of rejoicing triumph. 

Where have you labored in vain ? Your own recorded 
testimony is, that " success, to a certain extent, has invariably 
attended your missionary exertions among the heathen." * 
Name an instance, if you can, in which an attempt to intro- 
duce the gospel among a barbarous people, and perseverance 
in the use of suitable means, have not been attended with a 
measure of success. Even where that success has been ap- 
parently delayed, was it not as much, if not more, eventually, 
than as if it had been early and gradually sent? Has not the 
scene of your greatest dejection repeatedly proved the occa- 
sion of your greatest triumph ? And as to the tendency of 
your missionary activity to benefit yourselves, say by what 
other process you can suppose your advantage would have 

* Evidence on the Aborigines, p. 132. 
20* 



234 THE BENEFITS OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 

been greater. By what other means could you have equally 
learned the secret of mutual Christian influence; of the stim- 
ulating; effect of individual devotedness upon a church, and 
of one church upon another, and of one denomination upon 
every other part of the Christian community : the great fact that 
for a single Christian to move in my service is sure eventually 
to move the entire church, and to hasten the conversion of 
the world ? Or by what other means could I have equally 
illustrated the fact that my church is constituted expressly for 
this end, and that its welfare depends on its becoming the 
channel of my Spirit to the world, and of thus answering the 
great relative object of its existence ? 

But if so many ends have been answered, and so much 
good has been accomplished by the comparatively slender 
amount of instrumentality which you have already put into 
motion, what might you not have been the means of effecting, 
had your activity but equalled your resources? For though 
my sovereignty is at liberty to act as independently as I 
please, both of your instrumentality, and of my own prom- 
ises, in exceeding your just expectations ; and though, in this 
sense, I will still be " found of them that sought me not," yet 
as you have never asked but I have answered, never labored 
but I have blessed, think how many a region still sitting in 
darkness might have been added to those which you have 
been the means of bringing into marvellous light ! 

And now, when will you be satisfied with success ? You 
say that you are grateful for the past ; but remember that 
whatever you may profess, the amount of your present activity 
describes the exact degree of your gratitude. You profess to 
recognize a connection and a proportion between the measure 
of your instrumentality and your success ; are you then already 
satisfied with the good effected, that you do not increase your 
Christian activity ? This you profess to be quite impossible : 
nothing, you avow, can ever arrest your activity y or satisfy your 
desires, till my gospel has leavened the heart of humanity, and 
its laws have become interwoven with every human govern- 
ment ; till wars have ceased to the ends of the earth ; a sorrow- 
ing world has dried up its tears; till the reign of sin be ended, 
and one universal transporting song ascend from every land in 
honor of Him by whom the victory is achieved. Why then do 
you not aim at greater proportion between the splendor of your 
expectations and the measure of your endeavors? I am not 
exhausted with imparting; are you weary with receiving? 



AN ARGUMENT FOR INCREASED ACTIVITY. 235 

As yet you have only received the first- fruits ; when will you 
be prepared for the harvest? I have only at present begun to 
bless ; but " prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, 
if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you 
out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive 
it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he 
shall not destroy the fruits of your ground ; neither shall your 
vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord 
of hosts. And all nations shall call you blessed; for ye shall 
be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts." 



PART III. 



ENCOURAGEMENT OF CHRISTIANS TO PROSECUTE THE 
MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 



As far as human agency is concerned in the eventual tri- 
umph of the gospel, he who despairs of that triumph is doing 
all he can to prevent it ; and he who confidently and consist- 
ently expects it is materially contributing to promote it. 
While it is admitted, therefore, as an axiom in Christian 
morals, that encouragements to duty do not form the ground 
of our obedience, yet when such encouragements are gra- 
ciously afforded, not to regard them would be sullen ingrati- 
tude against God, and not to feel them is to remain insensible 
to some of the most cheering and powerful inducements to 
increased activity. Encouragements to missionary labor, and 
to anticipate the final success of that labor, lie around us on 
every side. In collecting and presenting some of the more 
obvious among them to Christian attention, it may contribute 
to clearness, and sufficiently answer our present object, if we 
consider them in succession, as historical, political, moral, 
ecclesiastical, and evangelical ; after which we shall mark their 
relation to the preceding parts, and their practical application. 



SECTION I. 

ENCOURAGEMENT FROM HISTORY. 

The first encouragement to missionary labor to which we 
invite attention, is that which is derivable from the history of 
the propagation of Christianity. In attempting the diffusion 



ENCOURAGEMENTS AS TO MISSIONS. 237 

of the gospel, we are not engaged in a novel experiment; nor 
is the gospel itself a system of truth hitherto untried. It 
has a long and an eventful history. In order to estimate its 
prospects for the future, then, let us question that history con- 
cerning the past ; for if it shall appear that Christianity, re- 
garded merely as one form of religion among many, has van- 
quished every foe which it has encountered, passed through 
every ordeal to which it is ever likely to be subjected, and is 
still vigorous and aggressive, even the skeptic must admit 
that, whether its success be owing to supernatural aid, to in- 
trinsic excellence, or to both, its friends have strong encour- 
ment to hope for its continued progress. 

Now, the first question naturally arising in the mind of an 
inquirer on this subject would be — " Has the religion of the 
Bible triumphed already 1 " Open the first pages of its history, 
we reply, and you will find that its early history is a history 
of its triumphs. It matters not whether that history be writ- 
ten by an Origen or a Pliny, a Eusebius or a Tacitus, a 
Tertullian or a Gibbon — friends and foes alike bear testi- 
mony to the fact that during its early ages the gospel not 
merely maintained its ground, but extended its conquests on 
every hand with a rapidity and a vigor which left numbers of 
its enemies no alternative but to ascribe it to the finger of 
God. " Perhaps, however, the advent of Christianity took 
place at a time when the prevailing systems of religion were 
of a kind less hostile to innovation than those which exist at 
present ; or perhaps the character of the gospel had a tend- 
ency to coalesce with them, and accept of their support." 
So far from this, the gospel was utterly unlike every sys- 
tem which the mind of man had imagined ; nor would it 
accept the remotest alliance with any, but proclaimed a war 
of extermination against them all ; and yet it triumphed. It 
found every human heart a temple filled with the worship of 
some idol god, and the world a Pantheon, crowded with the 
long-accumulated images and services of an ancient idolatry; 
and yet it triumphed. Never, perhaps, had the prevailing 
systems presented a more threatening front to the pretensions 
of anv new and rival religion than at that period ; this the 
ages of persecution which followed sufficiently testified ; but 
not only did the gospel denounce them, — it went even deeper, 
and proclaimed eternal war against the very propensities and 
principles of human nature which had given them birth ; and 
yet it triumphed. " But the gospel may have owed its early 



238 ENCOURAGEMENTS TO PROSECUTE 

successes to an instrumentality of a kind so efficient as it 
may never possess again." As far as that agency was mirac- 
ulous, it was doubtless demonstrative of the truth of the 
gospel ; but the means employed for its diffusion were simply 
" the foolishness of preaching." No purple clothed it, no 
orators pleaded its cause, no secret bribes procured it access 
to the ear of the great, no army hewed for it a path ; and yet 
it triumphed. The apparent impotence and meanness of its 
agents formed one of the great objections of the day against 
the divinity of its origin, and the possibility of its success ; 
and yet it triumphed. And one of the reasons why such an 
instrumentality was employed doubtless was, that the church 
might never, on this ground, have cause to despond ; that it 
might feel that as long as it can furnish but " twelve fisher- 
men," it possesses an instrumentality equal, under God, to 
repeat the triumphs of its primitive days. 

" But it may be that Christianity triumphed only in one' 
direction, and vanquished only a single kind of opposition." 
It evaded no difficulty, turned aside from no foe. It went 
in search of " Satan's seat." Not a people here and there 
merely, but many nations, and these in every stage of civil- 
ization, and exhibiting almost every variety of political and 
moral condition, abandoned their idolatries, and embraced the 
Christian name. 

" But many a system which has prospered in its early days, 
and which has even gained energy by conflict, has no sooner 
been seated in the place of ease and power, than it has fallen 
before the first vigorous assault which it was called to sustain. 
One would like to see, therefore, whether or not Christendom 
could survive such an encounter." The irruption of the 
Gothic and Slavic nations into the Roman empire furnished 
the means of the experiment ; and what was the effect '? 
The conversion of these northern barbarians had been before 
but imperfectly attempted ; yet now, when they came to van- 
quish the civilized world, the second increase of Christianity 
took place by their nominal adoption of the faith. And thus 
the very event which had threatened Christendom with irrep- 
arable ruin proved the second era of its enlargement. 

" In this instance, however, the encounter of Christianity 
was only with barbarian force. What if the antagonist had 
been armed with knowledge, with elastic mind, and intellect- 
ual might ? " The supposition has been realized ; realized 
under circumstances the most unfavorable for Christianity ; 



THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 239 

and yet it triumphed. At the time when ancient literature 
arose from the sleep of ages like a giant refreshed ; when the 
newly-created press gave wings to thought ; when philosophy 
rose like a sun on the old world, and science discovered a 
new world ; and when mind, in consequence, received an im- 
pulse which threatened with extinction whatever was not true 
and good, Christianity was found overlaid and oppressed with 
centuries of corruption. But with an energy of self-renovat- 
ing power which could have only come from God, it arose 
with the occasion, and, so far from avoiding, actually called 
to its side, and employed in its service, all those elements of 
greatness which had just come into existence. Ancient 
literature held its rekindled torch to the translation of the 
Bible ; the press propagated it in all directions ; an inductive 
philosophy has ever since been illustrating its truths, and aug- 
menting its evidence ; and from parts of that new world 
which Christianity was the first to colonize, it is n&w medi- 
tating the conversion of mankind. 

" Still the test might have been more severe. Christianity 
might have remained unreformed, or the slumber of security 
might have come over it after the reformation, while its en- 
emies were secretly forging their weapons, and gradually pre- 
paring for its sudden destruction ; what would have been the 
issue of such an onset 1 " The question is answered ; the 
onset was made, and yet the cause of the gospel triumphed. 
The Neological Pantheism of Spinoza; the Casuistic Doubts 
of Bayle ; the Phenomenonism of Hume ; Kant and Tran- 
scendental Skepticism ; the Ridicule of Voltaire ; the Senti- 
mental Deism of Rousseau ; the Historical Infidelity of Gib- 
bon ; all the agents and hosts of evil fell on the cause of Truth 
in quick succession, and in the hour of its faintness, and felt 
secure of its utter extinction. Political convulsions, too, at 
the same time, seemed to conspire and make way for the most 
fearful changes. The revolutionized aspect of the social sys- 
tem, at this moment, testifies to the violence of that moral 
deluge by which mountains were brought down, and valleys 
raised, and the organic structure of Christendom changed. 
Yet not only did Christianity survive the conflict, — the hour 
of its crisis was the season of its greatest triumph. While 
maintaining its ground with apparent difficulty at home, it 
was actually acquiring new territories abroad. At the mo- 
ment when its enemies supposed that its doom was sealed, it 
was seen as a mighty angel flying through the midst of heav- 



240 ENCOURAGEMENTS TO PROSECUTE 

en, and preaching the everlasting gospel to all nations. The 
day of its fiercest trial is the day from which it, dates its 
modern missionary enterprise. 

Now, are we not encouraged from this review of the past to 
augur hopefully of the future? Shall not the weapon which 
has never failed be regarded by us with greater confidence 
than one which has never been tried ? Is it too much to 
expect that the gospel which has triumphed so long and so 
gloriously will continue to triumph still ? We pass to the 
field of missionary effort over the wrecks of former systems 
of idolatry, and through scenes of early gospel triumph, and 
shall we not feel the inspiration of the scene? Where now 
is Diana of the Ephesians? Where now are Jupiter and the 
gods of Greece ? and where the whole Pantheon of Rome ? 
The first Christians testified against them, and they vanished. 
Missionaries of Christ came to Britain ; and where now are 
Woden and all the Saxon gods ? Hessus, and all the more 
ancient and sanguinary rites of the Druids ? The idols which 
we now assail in other lands have been long since routed, and 
the sword we wield routed them. The gods of India are the 
same, under different names, which Italy and Greece adored ; 
the sword of the Lord chased them from the west, and shall 
it do less in the east? Remembering " the years of the right 
hand of the Most High," let us " thank God and take 
courage/ 



SECTION II 



MISSIONARY ENCOURAGEMENT ARISING FROM THE POLITICAL 
ASPECT OF THE WORLD. 

A second ground of missionary encouragement, and one 
deserving peculiar attention, may be denominated political, 
for it respects the external relations of Christendom, and 
especially of reformed Christendom, to the rest of the world. 
If the social condition of states, and their aspects towards 
each other, are to possess any weight in our estimate of the 
missionary cause, we may venture to affirm that it would 
be difficult to conceive of their occupying any position, rela- 
tive to that cause, more encouraging than that which they 
now present. 



THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 241 

1. For first, all the rest of the globe appears to be placed, 
by Providence, at the disposal of Christendom. This will 
appear from a slight degree of attention to the following con- 
siderations : That which classifies and distributes the popu- 
lation of the earth is, not geographical lines, but religion. 
This is the centre around which humanity collects, and by 
which it is civilized and formed into masses ; and hence the 
savage tribes, having nothing deserving the name of religion, 
know nothing of civilization, or of union among themselves. 
Now, if we look down upon the human race from a point of 
view sufficiently high, we shall find them divisible into three 
great families — the Mahometan, the Brahminical, and the 
Christian, including the Jewish. Within the bosom of these 
families there are numerous points of difference. The nations 
which compose them are in various stages of progress ; but 
still they are all marshalled and moving under one or other 
of these three banners.* 

The Mahometan division occupies South-Western Asia, 
and the north and east of Africa. The Brahminic section, 
the most populous of the three, possesses Eastern Asia, and 
the neighboring islands on the east and south, including 
Japan, Chinese Tartary, China, and the Indies. The Chris- 
tian portion comprehends Europe and America, penetrates 
Asia by the north and the south, Africa south of the tropics, 
and has colonies every where. 

The Moslem division embraces a population of about a 
hundred and twenty millions ; Brahminism, in its different 
sects, about four hundred millions ; and Christendom about 
two hundred millions. The remainder of the human race, 
amounting to nearly a hundred millions, are savage. These 
are so scattered and surrounded, that, as a portion of hu- 
manity, they exert no influence on the three great divisions, 
but are probably destined to be assimilated and absorbed 
by them. 

The great powers, then, which divide the civilized world 
between them, are Mahometanism, Brahminism, and Chris- 
tianity. Now, of these, it is evident from facts that the 



* For many of the facts stated in this part of the present section, 
the author is indebted to a sketch of the "Present State of Human- 
ity," by Mr. Jouffroy, Professor in the Faculty of Literature, Paris; 
in which, with much that is unsound in theory, there is blended much 
that is useful in information. 

21 



242 ENCOURAGEMENTS TO PROSECUTE 

Christian division is the only one which possesses an expan- 
sive power. 

Christianity alone entertains the idea of gaining savage 
tribes to civilization. Brahminism has few or no savages 
to civilize ; for while on one side its dominion extends to the 
eastern borders of Asia, on the other it approaches Mahom- 
etanism and Christianity, and consequently touches the other 
systems of civilization. Mahometanism also, on the east 
towards Asia, and on the north and west towards Europe, 
is arrested by Christian and Brahminic civilization. It comes 
in contact with savages only at the south towards the centre 
of Africa; and these there is reason to conclude that it 
entirely disregards. But while Mahometanism and Brahmin- 
ism take no measures by which they may share in the mass 
of men who are yet to be civilized, if we turn our eyes to 
Christianity we perceive that, with the exception of the bar- 
barians of Africa — and even these it is on the point of dis- 
puting with Mahometanism — it holds in its hand all the 
savages of the rest of the world. 

For, in the next place, Christendom is the only one of the 
three divisions which colonizes. Mahometanism, like Brah- 
minism, keeps at home. The time when it subdued nations 
with the sword is past. While there is hardly an island of 
any considerable magnitude where one part or other of Chris- 
tendom has not taken a station. 

It is the only one of the three divisions capable of increase 
from population. The countries possessed by the other two 
have as many inhabitants already as comport with their re- 
spective systems of civilization. But this is so far from 
being the case with Christendom, that the population of 
modern Russia, for instance, doubles itself in about fifty 
years, and that of America in about half that period. It 
has before it, therefore, a vast prospect oY increase, both at 
the expense of the savage portion of the human race, and 
by virtue of its own productive power — a prospect denied to 
the other two. 

Christendom alone evinces a zeal for improvement. Among 
the Brahminic nations science is stationary ; by the Mahom- 
etan it is despised ; while among us it is honored and culti- 
vated, and is rapidly arming us with an ever-increasing power 
over them both. 

Besides which, it is the only power which advances at the 
expense of the others. Not only does its superiority secure 



THE MISSIONARY ExNTERPRlSE. 243 

it from the attacks of the other two, — it places them both, in a 
sense, at our disposal. Accordingly, neither Brahminism 
nor Mahometanism penetrates, or attempts to penetrate, into 
Christendom. They appear smitten with death. They make 
no conquests even on each other, or among barbarians. 
They seem to exist merely because time is requisite for a 
dead system, as for a dead tree, to fall to pieces. Christen- 
dom, on the contrary, exhibits all the signs of a fresh and 
vigorous life. Every where it advances with ardor and de- 
liberate purpose into the domains of Brahma and Mahomet; 
and almost the only resistance which it meets with is that of 
inertness and decay. Thus, while the aspect which the 
former two present is that of the Dead Sea, the latter, like 
the Jordan, is seen rushing into it, and we cannot forget that 
the promise is, " The waters shall be healed." 

2. But if, on taking a survey of the civilized world, we 
are struck with the fact that, of the three systems into which 
it is divided, Christendom alone is aggressive, still more are 
we impressed at finding that, of all the nations of Christen- 
dom, those which are especially distinguished by Providence 
with political influence over the lands of Brahma and Ma- 
homet are the reformed and antipapal powers. Italy with 
its enfeebling despotism, Spain with its internal factions and 
suicidal passions, and even France with its redundant peas- 
antry, exhibit no symptoms of diffusing themselves over the 
world. England, English America, and Russia, are the only 
countries now standing in an interesting relation to the 
future. The former two may be regarded as one. Con- 
cerning its probable destiny, let us hear an opinion, which, 
considering the quarter whence it comes, is entitled to deep 
attention. It cannot be denied that " the British race/' says 
M. Tocqueville,* " has acquired an amazing preponderance 
over all the other European races in the New World ; and 
that it is very superior to them in civilization, in industry, 
and in power. . . . The geographical position of the British 
race in the New World is peculiarly favorable to its rapid 
increase. ... It has been calculated that the whites advance 
every year a mean distance of seventeen miles along the 
whole of this vast boundary, [about fifteen hundred miles.] 
Obstacles, such as an unproductive district, a lake, or an 
Indian nation, unexpectedly encountered, are sometimes met 

* Democracy in America. Paris and London, 1835. 



244 ENCOURAGEMENTS TO PROSECUTE 

with. The advancing column then halts for a while ; its two 
extremities fall back upon themselves ; and, as soon as they 
are reunited, they proceed onwards. This gradual and con- 
tinued progress of the European (British) race towards the 
Rocky Mountains, has the solemnity of a providential event ; 
it is like a deluge of men rising unabatedly, and daily driven 
onwards by the hand of God. . . . Thus, in the midst of the 
uncertain future, one event at least is sure. At a period 
which may be said to be near, (for we are speaking of the 
life of a nation,) the Anglo-Americans will alone cover the 
immense space contained between the Polar regions and the 
Tropics, extending from the coast of the Atlantic to the 
shores of the Pacific Ocean — equal to three quarters of 
Europe in extent; with a population of a hundred and fifty 
millions of men. . . . This is a fact new to the world, a fact 
fraught with such portentous consequences as to baffle the 
efforts even of the imagination." 

But it is not merely one quarter of the world of which the 
British race have taken possession. Southern Africa has re- 
ceived her language and her laws. In Australia — a new 
world, larger than Europe, and comparatively empty of men — 
colonization is spreading with a rapidity never before wit- 
nessed. And still about two hundred thousand emigrants 
annually leave the shores of Britain to take possession of the 
waste places of the earth, as if they were theirs by a divine 
gift, or by the right of inheritance. 

Our empire and political influence in the East, too, are of 
vast and still increasing extent. We speak not now of the un- 
expected manner in which England has been allowed to become 
the mistress of India, or of the solemn responsibility which 
the mighty transfer has imposed on us. These are subjects 
for consideration in a subsequent chapter. We advert to the 
striking fact, that Providence has permitted us to acquire 
political influence over about a hundred millions of immortal 
beings in India, as a very cheering view for those who medi- 
tate their conversion to God. And this fact becomes still 
more encouraging and significant of the divine designs, when 
we remember that the country has already been in the hands 
of the Portuguese, who, by their cruelty, opposed its religious 
improvement, and of the Dutch, who neglected it, and is now 
intrusted to the only people who possess the means, humanly 
speaking, of benefiting it. 

Now, what reflecting Christian but must perceive, in this 



THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 245 

view of the state of the world, strong encouragement to mis- 
sionary enterprise ? Let him not fear that we shall overrate 
its importance ; or be tempted by it to withdraw our supreme 
confidence from Him " who is our hope. 7 ' We are free to 
admit that our extensive influence has been acquired by no 
design or forethought on our part, but, in the providential 
course of events, from the expansiveness of our energies and 
the inherent advantages of that civilization for which we are 
indebted to our religion. Nor can we forget that the occa- 
sion which led to the colonization of America by the Puri- 
tans, the bribery and bloodshed by which we have obtained 
large portions of India, and the countenance still afforded to 
its hateful idolatry, are all calculated to cast a stain upon our 
glory, and may well induce us to rejoice with trembling. 
Still, it is not the less our duty, rather it is calculated to aug- 
ment our gratitude, to remark that, in defiance of all our own 
deserts, and of all human calculation, our political position 
abounds with encouragement to missionary exertion. 

Suppose, for instance, that Christendom and Mahometan- 
ism were to exchange their relative positions ; that the former 
were declining and superannuated, existing on the mere suf- 
ferance of the latter, and expecting to be finally driven from 
Europe ; while the standard of the prophet was planted' in 
the heart of the continent, the cimeter flashing around the 
shores of the Mediterranean, and one province and island 
after another resounding for the first time with the cry of the 
muezzin, — would the change cast no shade over our mis- 
sionary prospects? Whatever our duty might be, would our 
hopes remain undiminished 1 Would not a revolution, which 
should cast Mahometanism to the earth, and place Christen- 
dom in its present attitude of security and superiority above 
it, bring back a great accession of encouragement to the 
missionary cause, and be regarded by us as a loud call to in- 
creased activity 1 

Suppose, again, that those on whom the modern missionary 
spirit has descended, inhabited a country situated in the cen- 
tre of the European continent, destitute of a navy, and stran- 
gers to commerce, — would the want of all our present mari- 
time facilities be unfelt and undeplored ? Is it nothing that 
this spirit has been excited among those whose subject terri- 
tory is thrice as large as that of ancient Rome, whose 
colonies people every quarter of the globe, and whose ships 
crowd every port of every shore ? This is not accident. It 
21* 



246 ENCOURAGEMENTS TO PROSECUTE 

is the finger cf God pointing out our duty to the world, and 
the voice of God cheering us on to perform it. 

Is it nothing, again, that India " is open " ? Only a little 
more than a century ago, it was as likely, to all appearance, 
that the Mogul empire would have passed into the hands of 
France, of Portugal, of Denmark, of Holland, or even of 
Russia, as of England. But, under the jealous despotism 
of Russia, or the ascendency of a Romish power, India 
would have been closed against the missionary. And is it 
nothing, then, that it has been given to the only Protestant 
power capable of efficiently discharging the high mission of 
genuine Christianity throughout the East? Let the Chris- 
tian reader, who beholds in it a special providence, derive 
from it also special encouragement to increased missionary 
effort. 



SECTION III 



MISSIONARY ENCOURAGEMENT ARISING FROM THE MORAL 
ASPECT OF THE WORLD. 

1. Another source of encouragement to missionary exer- 
tion arises from the moral aspect of the various parts of the 
world. And here, if we begin our examination with the 
least hopeful of those parts — the Mahometan, and select the 
least auspicious sections even of these — Persia and Turkey, 
we shall find that never did the Moslem ranks present so 
broken a front, and invite aggression with so great a pros- 
pect of success as at present. The political state of these 
countries is a correct representation of their moral condi- 
tion. Persia, by its heretical adherence to Ali, divides the 
Mussulman power, and becomes a source of solicitude and 
weakness to Turkey. As Mahomet appealed to the sword 
in proof of the divinity of his mission, " every battle lost is 
an argument lost ; " so that the evidence of his creed is 
nearly at its minimum. Science and philosophy are against 
it; for of all the systems of false religion, that of the impostor 
is the least true to nature ; so that almost every fresh scien- 
tific discovery is the preparation of a new weapon with which 
to assail it, and every Mahometan that begins to reason, is a 
votary lost. The Ottomans themselves are possessed with a 



THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 247 

melancholy foreboding of their doom; and the events of 
every year only serve to deepen the gloom of their prospects. 
Their moral aspect now, therefore, is that of a foe compara- 
tively disarmed and disheartened ; and though he who should 
denounce the Caaba, or preach the Cross, in the streets of 
Constantinople, would probably find the cadi and bigotry as 
active as ever, yet the history of Henry Martyn shows us how 
patiently the Islamite will attend to the claims of Christianity, 
when judiciously presented, and how beneficial an influence 
may be exercised by religious conversation alone. 

2. There was a time when the Polytheism of India was 
deemed unchangeable. It is evident, however, not only that 
multitudes of Hindoos adopted, from whatever motives, the 
religion of their Mahometan conquerors, but that, without 
any foreign inducement, they have voluntarily passed through 
the usual gradations of error, and exhibited the ordinary 
love of change. From the worship of the elements they 
have advanced to Brahminical Polytheism ; from Polytheism 
to the Pantheism of the Budhists; and from Budhism have 
returned to Brahminism again. So that all our fears of the 
immobility of the Hindoo character have been long since 
proved to be unfounded. It should be remembered also, that 
the religion prevalent through all the regions of the East is 
substantially the same. For the Brahminism of Hindostan 
is only a more popular form of the strict Pantheism which 
prevails to the north and the east, and which is satisfied with 
the one incarnation of Budh. So that in dissolving the fatal 
charm of Hindooism, we should not be benefiting a single 
nation, merely, but breaking the spell by which nearly half 
the race are morally enslaved. 

Remarkable it is, too, that there should be one country of 
the East which has given religion, science, and civilization 
to all the rest; for from India have proceeded the mission- 
aries of the Lamas, the Bonzes, and of Budh, the last of the 
Indian incarnations — a fact which awakens the hope that 
when the same land embraces Christianity, it will be equally 
ready to furnish missionaries of the cross for the very extrem- 
ities of Asia. Still more remarkable is it, that this one coun- 
try, to which all the surrounding regions look as the fountain 
of holiness and wisdom, should be placed by Providence at 
our disposal. To heighten our encouragement, the ancient 
and antiquated religion of this one country has fallen into 
discredit, and is rapidly on the decline. Where one new 






248 ENCOURAGEMENTS TO PROSECUTE 

temple is built, sixty are allowed to go to ruin. Many of the 
seminaries where the shastres are studied, are closed for want 
of pupils. Nodea and Santapore, the two most celebrated 
of these colleges, and which formerly had from three to four 
thousand students, have not at present more than three or 
four hundred. The Brahmins themselves have lost so much 
of their influence with the people, that their curses are but 
little dreaded, or their blessings desired. Hundreds of them 
have renounced the priesthood, as no longer able to afford 
them the means of living. The links of caste are fractured, 
and the very weight of the chain is threatening a powerful 
reaction against it. 

Who does not behold in all this a grand work of providen- 
tial preparation for the missionary enterprise in India? And, 
as if nothing should be wanting to complete our encourage- 
ment, a large proportion of the population are already able to 
read and write ; a very general desire is felt to acquire the 
arts and sciences of Europe ; and the knowledge of these 
would necessitate and hasten the fall of Hindooism. A strong 
presentiment that its doom is sealed is daily extending ; and 
such is the comparative indifference for its fate, that, in nu- 
merous instances, the Christian missionary denounces idolatry 
in the very temple of the god. 

3. China — that world within itself — is doubtless sur- 
rounded with obstacles to conversion. But the existence of 
these constitute the very reason, and the only ground of 
necessity, why we should attempt it. She is guarded against 
the truth by more than one wall. Her material wall, as it 
has been justly remarked, is crumbling dust compared with 
her political ; her political wall is a mere illusion compared 
with her moral barriers — for civilization in China can hardly 
be called religious ; her moral wall of prejudice and pride is 
only that by which sin intrenches itself in every country and 
every heart. The wall which overtops the whole, and which 
we shall find it most difficult to surmount, is that which our 
own unbelief and ignorance have erected. Every other has 
been breached and entered. So far is China to be from being 
regarded as impregnable, that Judaism entered it probably 
prior to the Christian era, Budhism in the first century, 
Nestorianism in the seventh century, Mahometanism in the 
eighth century, and Romanism in the thirteenth century. 
Such was the success of Popery in China, especially in the 
hands of M. Ricci and Father Schaal, that many of the man- 



THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 249 

darins embraced its doctrines ; one province alone contained 
ninety churches and forty-five oratories ; a splendid church 
was built within the palace ; the mother, wife, and son of 
the emperor, Yung-leih, professed Christianity ; and nothing 
apparently prevented China from being added to the Papal 
see but the disputes which broke out between the Jesuits and 
the Dominicans. 

But besides the encouragement derivable from the fact 
that China has already been open to missionary aggression, 
it should be gratefully remembered also that obstacles exist- 
ing elsewhere are absent here; and that many of those con- 
siderations which once operated as fears, have gradually 
vanished, or changed into hopes. The climate, for instance, 
so far from being relaxing or pestilential, is fully as salubrious 
as that of England, and much less changeable. The Ian- 
guage, once deemed unattainable, has been mastered, and 
"made easy;" and what an inducement should it furnish to 
the Christian student, that when he has mastered the Chinese 
symbols, he will be able to make himself intelligible from the 
mouth of the Ganges to the Amoor, and to indite a book — 
for nearly ail can read — for more than one third of the hu- 
man race. The despotic unity of its government, by which 
the will of one man moves and rules the entire mass, may 
itself be made the means, under God, of its more easy and 
effectual reconstruction on Christian principles. At all 
events, the unity of character resulting from this unvarying 
uniformity of literature and government, is attended with this 
advantage to the missionary, that, to comprehend the senti- 
ments and reply to the objections of a single mind, is to mas- 
ter the views and objections of three hundred and sixty mil- 
lions of human beings. In this respect, too, the magnitude 
of the population, once regarded as appalling, presents the 
missionary with an advantage not to be met with elsewhere. 
But that which calls for special observation is, both that the 
Chinese mode of writing is current and legible far beyond 
the limits of China, throughout Cochin-China, Corea, and 
Japan, and that the population of China itself is bursting 
forth on every side, placing itself in voluntary contact with 
Christians, and seeking the shelter of European governments. 
Millions are already to be found in Burmah and Siam, in 
Pegu, Assam, and the Malayan Archipelago. All these are 
accessible to missionary efforts. What has been accom- 
plished of late among these by the ardent and persevering 



250 ENCOURAGEMENTS TO PROSECUTE 

zeal of two or three individuals, encourages the hope and 
points out the way of benefiting China at large. For only 
let suitable measures be taken to evangelize the emigrant 
Chinese, and a race of missionaries will be thus provided, 
which, in despite of imperial edicts, will find their way into 
all parts of the empire, and become, in the hands of God, the 
instruments of its renovation. 

4. The most considerable body of barbarians on the face 
of the earth at present, living contiguously in the same region, 
is the forty millions of Central Africa. To the evangeliza- 
tion, or even the civilization, of this dense mass of barbarism, 
five obstacles formerly presented themselves, each of which 
was deemed insuperable — the judicial sentence of God 
against them, their mental imbecility, the demoralizing influ- 
ence of slavery, the deadly nature of the climate, and the 
ferocious character of the native superstitions. To the first 
of these it is now considered a sufficient reply, that the gospel 
repeals every national malediction, and addresses itself to 
every creature. Missionary culture has proved that, as to 
the second, the charge of mental inferiority must in future 
lie rather against those who bring it than against the African. 
The third will be gradually obviated in the universal abolition 
of slavery — for the sentence of indignant humanity has gone 
forth against it. While the emancipation of our slaves might 
go far to obviate the fourth ; for what agency so fitted, phys- 
ically and morally, to evangelize the inhabitants of the torrid 
zone as their converted brethren of the West Indies ? And, 
as to the last, — the ferocious character of African supersti- 
tion, — it is now well ascertained that while their religious 
creed is too meagre and undefined to possess a powerful hold 
on their minds, their religious practices, consisting of Obeah 
and Fetishism, form a " reign of terror " against which a very 
slight inducement would raise them in revolt. And hence, 
wherever the gospel has been preached to them, " Ethiopia 
has stretched out her hands unto God." 

5. The other savage portions of the earth wear a more 
encouraging aspect still. As there is no peculiar obstacle 
to the religious instruction of the aborigines of the Americas 
which European injustice has not created, it may be hoped 
that the Christian sympathy awakened in their behalf will be 
successful in removing it; while their comparative vicinity 
to the American churches encourages the hope of their more 
speedy recovery. Experiment has proved that the New Hoi- 



THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 251 

lander maybe reclaimed and elevated to Christian humanity; 
and that New Zealand may become a province of the Prince 
of peace. Nearly the whole of Eastern Polynesia is converted 
to the Christian faith. And still, as the missionary stretches 
away towards the Fijis, and approaches New Caledonia, New 
Britain, New Ireland, and New Guinea, he finds the islands 
waiting for the law of the Lord. 

6. Christendom naturally divides itself into the Greek, 
Romish, and Reformed Churches: reserving the last for 
consideration in the next section, we may remark of the first, 
that, with all its unvarying childishness and love of toys, it is 
not without the prospect of improvement. Education is en- 
couraged and promoted by the emperor of Russia. The 
career of civilization on which that vast country has entered 
will necessarily bring her into contact with superior moral 
influences, and there is nothing in the constitution of the 
Greek church to prevent her deriving advantage from them. 
According to a recent edict of the emperor, Russian Georgia 
is to be " evangelized" — signs of missionary activity, even 
of the lowest kind, are signs of hope. 

7. There is reason to believe that the palmy days of the 
Romish church have passed never to return. In the activity 
which she here and there exhibits, we see only the restless- 
ness of petulance, and the hurried and uncertain expedients 
of fear. The reformation has left no part of Popery what it 
was before. The press has imparted a power to public opin- 
ion by which the Inquisition — the extinguisher of opinion — 
has itself been extinguished. The circulation of the Bible 
has kindled a light from whose beams that system of dark- 
ness will never be able effectually to retire. The light of 
truth and the force of opinion are both against it. Even in 
Spain and Portugal, two of its strongholds, principles obtain 
with which, in its present form, it cannot long coexist. 

But let us glance at European Christendom in its two 
great divisions of north and south, — Germany and France. 
The Rationalism of Germany has been long on the decline. 
Almost of a sudden, and without any cause which could be 
historically traced, a general dissatisfaction and disgust with 
it seized the community. The teachers who favored infidel- 
ity saw themselves in the minority. Philosophy, previously 
hostile to religion, declared itself the servant of the Chris- 
tian faith. Supernaturalism obtained ascendency; and the 
still growing popularity of the " Pietists" augurs well for the 
diffusion of evangelical religion. 



252 ENCOURAGEMENTS TO PROSECUTE 

The Naturalism of France, like the Rationalism of Ger- 
many, is on the wane. Voltaire, Diderot, and Cabanis are 
no longer authorities with cultivated minds. And, though 
the great bulk of the people are still plunged in materialism, 
the philosophy of spiritualism alone (such as it is) is popular 
with the educated ; while, among the most enlightened part 
of the nation, a strong presentiment is said to prevail, of 
some approaching religious change. A spirit of religious 
inquiry is certainly abroad in France, such as has not been 
known since the time of the Reformation. And the multi- 
plication of Protestant Religious Societies, the gradual in- 
crease of faithful pastors in the Reformed National Church, 
and the eminent names of NefT, the Baron de Stael, Gon- 
thier, with those who are at present living, exert an influence 
which naturally awakens the hope that that spirit of inquiry 
may lead, under God, to the happiest results. 

8. Nor can we conclude these remarks on the moral con- 
dition of the various divisions of mankind, without adverting 
to the fact that even the mind of the Jews is beginning to 
awake. And though the philosophy of Mendelsohn is trans- 
ferring them from the silly reveries of their rabbins to the 
anti-supernaturalism of Spinosa, the very circumstance of 
their change shows that much of their obstinacy is to be 
ascribed to their ignorance, and that Christian kindness and 
instruction could never meet them more seasonably than now, 
in their passage from credulity to infidelity. Reformed syn- 
agogues have been opened at Berlin, Leipsic, Vienna, Carls- 
ruhe, Breslau, London, and other places. The Karaite Jews, 
or Scripturists, have an especial claim upon the attention of 
Christians. And let us remember that " the partial blind- 
ness that has fallen upon Israel shall continue (only) till the 
full complement of the nations shall have been brought in, 
and then shall universal Israel be restored." So that, as 
nation after nation opens its gates to welcome the entrance 
of the Christian faith, the Jews cannot look on without being 
in some degree " provoked to jealousy/' nor can we fail to 
recognize signs of their approaching recovery. 

Such are the moral signs of the times. We do not for a 
moment mistake them for signs of incipient conversion. We 
do not even interpret the most hopeful indication among 
them into a token of direct readiness to embrace the truth. 
The mind may leave one class of errors only to embrace a 
worse. All that we infer from the moral aspect of the world 
is, that if it be a more promising undertaking to assail a 



THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 253 

system of error, in the season of its age and weakness, than 
in the hour of its strength, that encouragement is now held 
out, for that season has arrived. If the time for recasting 
the metal is when it has reached a state of fusion, now is 
the period for employing the mould of the gospel, when the 
human mind is so generally indicative of being in the cruci- 
ble, and of possessing unusual susceptibility for new impres- 
sions. Look in what direction we will, the horizon of hope 
enlarges and brightens. The fanatical zeal of the Mahome- 
tan has burnt out. The priestly power of the Brahmin is 
broken, and his demons wait in vain for their prescribed liba- 
tions of blood. The altar of the Chinese, empty, but stand- 
ing, is waiting to welcome the advent of an unknown God. 
The South African chief comes from the remote interior, 
and offers his herds for a Christian teacher ; the vast king- 
doms and islands beyond the Ganges are ready for the recep- 
tion of a number of missionaries. In one quarter, Idolatry 
is losing its hold on millions ; in another, the savage is 
awakening from the sleep of centuries ; here, Popery is 
falling off from a nation, as a snake casts its gaudy but shriv- 
elled skin ; there, philosophy is wearied out with its ever 
promising but unsatisfactory illusions; and, elsewhere, childish 
credulity is becoming a man and putting away childish things. 
Every where are to be seen an impatience of the present, a 
deep presentiment that it is hastening to decay, and a spirit of 
inquiry, anticipation, and change, looking out on the future. 
As it was with Judea and the East generally about the era of 
the advent of the Son of God, the world is waiting for the 
advent of some principle or means which shall change its 
destinies. Now, then, is the time for the church to proclaim 
to it, " Behold your God." 



SECTION IV. 

ECCLESIASTICAL ENCOURAGEMENT TO PROMOTE THE MISSION- 
ARY ENTERPRISE. 

Of Protestant Christendom we proposed to speak sepa- 
rately. And as our object here will be to point out the eccle- 
siastical auspices of the missionary enterprise, we shall direct 
our attention chiefly to England and English America. For, 
22 



254 ENCOURAGEMENTS TO PROSECUTE 

although some of the Protestant churches of Switzerland and 
Holland, France and Germany, are prepared to send their 
contingents into the field of missionary labor, it may be ex- 
pected that their resources will be almost entirely needed for 
years to come to meet the demands of home ; while the sim- 
ilar resources of England, meantime, and of her religious 
ally, are of a degree which devolve on them preeminently 
the office of the religious instructors of the world. 

That peculiar encouragements for the execution of the 
office exist, we have already seen. In vain would it be, how- 
ever, to show that considerations, historical, political, and 
moral, conspired to animate the missionary enterprise, if, at 
the same time, every thing in the church itself seemed to 
forbid the attempt — if the missionary spirit, for instance, had 
yet to be enkindled ; or if, having been excited, it was evi- 
dently on the decline ; or if, having existed for years, it yet 
exhibited no signs of improvement at home, nor was attended 
with any success abroad. But, in reality, the direct reverse 
of each of these suppositions is found to be the truth ; and 
hence our ecclesiastical encouragement to advance. 

1. For, first, a missionary spirit does exist in our churches. 
There was a time, and that not many years ago, when it did 
not exist. Here and there a Christian divine might occasion- 
ally advert to the desirableness of such a spirit ; a Christian 
poet might tune his lyre to celebrate its glorious results ; and 
a Christian philanthropist wish to behold the sublime reality. 
But so far from entertaining any definite views, or manifesting 
any active zeal on the subject, the Christian community, in 
general, resembled rather the altar and offering of Elijah when 
immersed in water. And as, in great undertakings, the first 
step is commonly the most difficult and important, so here, 
now that fire has descended from heaven to ignite the mass, 
we are prepared to see the whole gradually become a flaming 
sacrifice for the glory of God. That such a sacred kindling 
has commenced, we have already demonstrated at large. 
Holy men of God have devoted themselves to the missionary 
enterprise ; Christians have associated for the purpose of 
sending them forth : and the result has been, that voices have 
been heard in various parts of the moral wilderness of the 
world, crying, " Prepare ye the way of the Lord." 

2. But let us rather proceed to show that not only does the 
missionary spirit exist, but that it is also progressive. It has, 
we presume, passed that critical period in the history of a 
society or institution when, losing those sympathies which 



THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 255 

kindle so easily on contact with new objects, it must rely on 
principles, or perish. At first, the warm impulses of pious 
feeling alone might serve to prompt to the effort, and to sup- 
ply the place of sober and substantial principles. 

But " that spring-time of novelty has passed. The ardent 
feeling and the excited imagination which threw so much 
interest over the prospect of the work, have given way to the 
grave reality of the work itself." Every year has increas- 
ingly based its support on its own intrinsic claims. The 
great truth that every Christian is bound to do something for 
the diffusion of the gospel, long hid from view, like a sand- 
covered pyramid of the East, has been gradually disinterred 
and brought to light ; till now it stands before the church in 
its majestic proportions, and is universally recognized as the 
fundamental principle of the missionary enterprise. No 
longer is it deemed necessary to support it by arguments. 
Being admitted as an axiom in Christian ethics, all that 
remains is, to point out its application, and to enforce its im- 
portance. And, further, to show that the church has been 
brought to act from a calm and simple sense of obligation, 
we might advert to the fact that, since its modern missionary 
activity commenced, it has, in some instances, endured pro- 
tracted trials and severe discomfitures, which would have put 
to flight all mere impulse, and which only a grave and deep- 
seated conviction of duty could have sustained. Notwith- 
standing the conviction that in this, as in every grand and 
lasting enterprise, the great law will obtain, that " one soweth 
and another reapeth," the friends of missions have continued 
to go forth to sow. 

It is an auspicious sign of the progress of a cause, when it 
can not only dispense with the impulse of mere excitement, 
and fall back on its principles, but when, at the very same 
time, it is found to extend and deepen its influence on the 
public mind. Now, the missionary cause has done this. 
" Not to pray for the coming of the Messiah," said the an- 
cient Jewish proverb, u is not to pray at all." And not to 
pray for the diffusion of his gospel, it may now be said, is not 
to pray at all. Every prayer is expected to include it. In 
every religious family, the infant lisps of it in his earliest 
nymn. The " missionary box" is an object of notice alike 
in the nursery and the school-room, in the private residence 
and the public shop. The missionary tract is in universal 
request in every Sunday school. The missionary " branch," 



256 ENCOURAGEMENTS TO PROSECUTE 

or " auxiliary," is to be found in activity in every district and 
every congregation. The missionary anniversary is hailed as 
the return of a most welcome festival. The subject is to be 
met with in newspapers, and journals, and libraries, of almost 
every description. Far and wide through the land does it 
enter into our literature, and form a part of the public 
reading. 

Nor is it confined to any one class of society. Beginning 
principally in the middle ranks, the missionary spirit has 
descended and pervaded the mass of the Christian poor, and 
at the same time has gradually drawn within its influence 
many in the highest circles of the nobility. Nor is it limited 
to any one denomination of the Christian community, or 
even to any particular portion of Christendom. Though 
some churches have attached themselves to the great mission- 
ary organization more tardily, and are less powerfully influ- 
enced by the object than others, yet every orthodox Protestant 
body in Christendom has at length joined it, and gives signs 
of being affected by it in a similar manner. Among all 
Christians holding the doctrines of the reformation, there is 
now a common mind in favor of the missionary enterprise. 

The prosperity of a cause is indicated also when the nu- 
merical increase of its supporters is not made an excuse for 
the reduction of individual effort, but both are seen advan- 
cing together. Now, the missionary cause exhibits this sign. 
Each successive year has witnessed an increase on the in- 
come and activity of the year preceding. Christians, trained 
to liberality by its beneficent spirit, have, in many instances, 
doubled and quadrupled their subscriptions. A salutary 
reaction has been constantly going on between the increase 
of our labors abroad and the enlarged demand on our re- 
sources at home. The more we have given, the more we have 
been enabled to do; and the more we have done, the more 
we have been constrained to give. The spiritual wants of the 
world have been brought to light so much faster than we have 
been prepared to supply them, that we have happily been able 
to think little of what we have done, in the prospect of the 
prodigious field of labor yet to be occupied. While every 
attempt to raise the standard of Christian liberality and ac- 
tivity has been, upon the whole, so promptly responded to by 
the great body of the faithful, that we are impelled to the 
conclusion that considerable resources are yet to be explored, 
and to the holy resolution that every succeeding year shall 



THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 257 

continue to develop and employ them. And may we not on 
these grounds warrantably hope that, though partial relapses 
may occasionally mark the missionary spirit, and even par- 
ticular societies fail, the next generation will prosecute the 
work with greater ardor than the present, and the generation 
following with still increased zeal ; and that thus the devoted- 
ness of the followers of Christ will approximate nearer and 
nearer to the elevated standard of his blessed gospel ? 

And it augurs well for the prosperity of a cause when it 
allows of receiving, and actually adopts, from time to time, 
the improvements, which, being human, it indispensably 
requires. Many an institution, full of promise at first, has 
perished through want of compliance with this easy but im- 
portant condition. Now, the history of Christian missions is 
a record of successive corrections and improvements. We 
may instance the gradual improvement in the kind of instru- 
mentality which they have employed. To say nothing of the 
sword alone ; and then of the sword and the symbol of the 
cross, conjoined — for these belonged to a too distant period 
and a too questionable object — we behold in the early his- 
tory of modern missions the strange conjunction of the mis- 
sionary and a royal edict, as in the mission sent to Lapland 
by Gustavus Vasa ; the missionary and commerce, as in the 
first Danish mission to Greenland ; * the missionary and the 
promise of civil distinctions, as in the attempts of the Dutch 
to evangelize Ceylon. And even in the early history of our 
present institutions, it was considered in some instances es- 
sential to success, that the missionary should be preceded by 
civilization rather than be the means of introducing it; while 
in others, perhaps, there was too great a tendency to neglect 
the means of civilization, even after Christianity had obtained 
a footing. The missionary without the Bible has, and ever 
must be, while Popery remains what it is, the great defect of 
Catholic missions ; and yet some of our early efforts to con- 
vert the heathen were in danger of suffering from the same 
deficiency. Then came the full conviction, that education, 
never, perhaps, entirely neglected, should uniformly accom- 
pany the preaching of the missionary, and form an essential 
part of his regular labors. On this followed the clear percep- 
tion, that if the Bible was to be translated, the barbarian to 

* The king of Denmark ordered a lottery in favor of the Green- 
land mission and commerce. 

22* 



258 ENCOURAGEMENTS TO PROSECUTE 

be civilized and instructed, and a Christian community built 
up, the missionary corps should be " picked men;" that 
instead of rating their requirements lower than those of the 
ministry at home, the holiest and ablest men the church 
could send forth were the fittest. And then came the convic- 
tion of the importance of training and employing native 
Christian agency — a step, perhaps, more pregnant with good 
to the missionary enterprise than even the increase of our 
own missionaries. 

During all this time, too, the friends of missions have been 
learning the importance of system in their proceedings; while 
the wisdom which they have been acquiring by experience 
has enabled them to systematize in the manner best adapted 
to their ultimate object. On the happy reciprocal influence 
of home and foreign activity ; on the kind of preparation 
necessary for the missionary work ; on the right selection of 
missionary stations; and on the mutual adaptation of agents 
and stations, — on these, and a variety of correlative particu- 
lars, their views have been receiving perpetual correction and 
expansion. And it may not be out of place to remark here, 
that if their object be to publish the gospel every where in 
the shortest time, a more judicious selection of missionary 
posts could hardly have been made than that which, by a wis- 
dom higher than their own, they now occupy. Few as those 
stations are, compared with the vast field of heathenism, they 
are so distributed that the efforts of the church must soon be 
heard of by the great proportion of mankind, and the entire 
world, meantime, may be said to be calling for relief within 
view and hearing of the church. 

3. Another auspicious fact is, that at such a conjuncture 
the providence of God should furnish so many facilities and 
auxiliaries for the prosecution of the work. The intercom- 
munity between all the provinces of the Roman empire which 
aided the early propagation of the gospel, and the newly- 
formed power of £he press which came in aid of the reforma- 
tion, though parallel facts, are not to be compared with the 
subsidiary aids in the service of the gospel at present. What, 
for instance, was the intercommunity to which we have 
alluded, compared with the facilities afforded now, by im- 
proved navigation alone, for visiting the remotest parts of the 
earth ? Was the central position of Judea a favorable cir- 
cumstance for the first diffusion of the gospel ? Britain is 
the Phoenicia of the modern world, with every part of which 



THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 259 

we are in constant communication. Was the early propaga- 
tion of Christianity materially promoted by the dispersion of 
the Jews among the surrounding nations? Still more widely 
are British Christians distributed among the nations now, 
and still more effectually, therefore, have they the means of 
contributing to the same glorious end. Did the greatness of 
the Roman empire present an ample field for missionary ex- 
ertion ? it is only an angle of the field which now awaits our 
labor. The transmarine possessions of Britain have an area 
of 2,200,000 square miles, a sea-coast of 20,000 nautical 
miles, and a population of 120,000,000. But our labors are 
not limited to these; our "field is the world." Did "the 
gift of tongues " conduce to the primitive diffusion of the 
gospel? The power of the press has come to us in its stead, 
enabling us to speak to the nations in a manner not depend- 
ent on the utterance of the speaker, but which often antici- 
pates his arrival, prepares the minds of a people for his mes- 
sage, and continues to echo it, after his departure, from gen- 
eration to generation. So mighty a power and so rich a gift 
is this, that had we to choose between it and the gift of 
tongues, we should all probably give it our decided prefer- 
ence. In a single year it multiplies copies of the Holy Scrip- 
tures by thousands and hundreds of thousands ; and, if 
need be, it could multiply them in the same time by as many 
millions. So that as far as the means for the propagation of 
the gospel are concerned, the Bible Society alone gives us 
a decided advantage over the primitive church. Having 
" rolled a noble stream of truth through the earth, it requires 
that the missionary should stand upon the banks, and cry, 
* Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.' " 

Success is seldom or never the result of a single influence ; 
and in addition to the complex aid to the missionary enter- 
prise we have already named, we may notice the favorable 
influence of the British character. The fact of our success 
in arms, our love of regulated liberty, and our priority in the 
race of scientific and civil improvement ; our national enter- 
prise, and the unparalleled extent of our colonial possessions ; 
our reputation for commercial integrity, for all that is hu- 
mane, generous, and noble in designs of benevolence ; and 
the multiplicity of our moral means for accomplishing them ; 
— these, and many other elements of individual worth and na- 
tional greatness, tend to invest our missionary character with 
additional weight in every part of the earth. How far the 



260 ENCOURAGEMENTS TO PROSECUTE 

general diffusion of the English language and literature may 
have already subserved the missionary object we know not, 
nor how much that object would be likely to be promoted by 
their ultimate universality ; but it is clear that if any lan- 
guage is likely to become universal, that language is the 
English ; and that, considering how deeply most of our early 
standard works are imbued with a religious spirit, none could 
have fallen in with our evangelical design more directly than 
this. 

We might invite special observation to the fact that certain 
influences which a few years ago were arrayed, not against 
the missionary enterprise merely, but against evangelical 
religion itself, are now ranged on their side. Science — 
chemistry alone — destroys Polytheism, root and branch. 
All the superstitions of the world involve more or less the 
worship of the elements ; but chemistry can decompose those 
very elements themselves, and thus leave the Hindoo with- 
out his gods : so that a child armed with a microscope is 
mightier, and more to be dreaded by Brahminism, than 
Samson by the Philistines when he slew thern " heaps upon 
heaps." 

The aspect which the national government, and that mighty 
power called public opinion, now present to the cause of 
missions, exhibit an auspicious contrast with the past. There 
was a time when the English missionary in India was indebted 
for protection to the Danish crown. There was a time when 
the cry was raised, for anti-missionary purposes, that our 
empire in India was an empire of opinion, and when all the 
force of that empire was against us. There was a time when 
the press was kept in spasms of activity by the Christian ad- 
vocates of heathenism for India; when pamphlet after pam- 
phlet proclaimed their veneration for the ancient Hindoo 
pantheon, and their rage at any mark of contempt shown to 
it, as if an affront had been offered to a valued friend, which 
they were bound most indignantly to resent. But let us 
mark, in a single instance, the indication of a change. " It 
is a happy circumstance," says the " Friend of India," " that 
Providence has placed so great a number of the Burmese 
provinces under the sway of Britain, in which the mission- 
aries " (driven from Ava and Rangoon, where a cruel perse- 
cution has been raised against the native converts) " are at 
liberty to carry on their benevolent labors without hinderance. 
It is not a little singular that whereas the Burmese mission 



THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 261 

grew out of the persecution of the British government thirty 
years ago, which constrained the missionaries to seek for 
spheres of labor beyond the reach of British interference: at 
present, the salvation of the Burmese mission is owing, under 
God, to the protection which that same government, more 
alive to its Christian obligations, is enabled to afford in its 
conquered provinces." 

In addition to all these auxiliaries to the cause of missions, 
we might point attention to two to which we have already 
incidentally adverted, — to education and native agency. 
By the former of these we are comparatively foregoing par- 
tial and immediate success, for the sake of preparing with 
much greater certainty, and to an incomparably wider extent, 
the future overthrow of idolatry, and a consequent way for 
the march of the truth over its ruins. And, by the latter, w r e 
are not only taking to the converted heathen the fruits of the 
tree of life, but, in a sense, are planting the tree in their soil, 
and leaving it to grow and flourish among them. 

Now, if our remarks on missionary progress proved that 
there is more of a missionary spirit in the church at present 
than has ever existed since primitive times, our observations 
on missionary facilities tend to show that our amount of 
means for the conversion of the world is considerably greater 
than existed even during those times. All the weapons of 
victory which they possessed, with the exception of miracles, 
are at our disposal ; and others of equal and even superior 
power are added to them. Some of these, indeed, are chiefly 
in the service of the world, but they exist for the church. 
Others were obstacles, but have become auxiliaries. Indeed, 
whatever designates Britain as the country destined by Prov- 
idence to take the lead in works of beneficence, must be 
regarded as an encouragement' to the missionary enterprise; 
and to a church alive to this object, all things around are 
ready and offer themselves as an apparatus for its successful 
prosecution. 

4. But not only is the missionary spirit in existence, in 
progress, and surrounded by numerous and powerful auxil- 
iaries ; it has been crowned with signal success. Had only 
a sin ode instance of usefulness attended its endeavors, even 
that would have been sufficient to redeem the enterprise from 
mere hopelessness. But the preceding Part contains abun- 
dant evidence to show that our success has been fully pro- 
portioned to our efforts; that advantages have flowed from 



262 ENCOURAGEMEx\TS TO PROSECUTE 

our activity which nothing else could have conferred ; and 
that the glorious result has abundantly exceeded the most 
sanguine expectations of those with whom the enterprise 
began. 

We wili here add only two remarks, that, great as our 
missionary success has been already, the Christian church is 
filled with the expectation of seeing greater things than these. 
While a sentiment of despondency and vague apprehension 
hangs over the regions of false religion, in the Christian 
church the present is an era of expectation and hope ; and 
the influence of hope contributes not a little to the accom- 
plishment of its own predictions. Besides which, the friends 
of Christian missions are entertaining a confident persuasion 
of the approach of a period when the influence of the Spirit 
will descend with much greater efficacy, and their success 
will be far greater than at present, in proportion to the meas- 
ure of their exertion. They deem it" reasonable to believe," 
says Foster, in the admirable Discourse already adverted to, 
" that when once a certain point of success has been attained, 
the mere accumulation of power and influence on the side 
of truth will impart an irresistible momentum and a greatly 
accelerated velocity to religious principles, so that the last 
conquest of Christianity shall be accomplished in an incom- 
parably shorter period than has been occupied in achieving 
its first successes." Judging from the past, they think it 
likely that when the native mind of a populous heathen land 
begins to awake and act, it will act in masses ; that the law 
of sympathy, becoming subservient to a higher influence, the 
" wind will blow where it listeth," so that no one will be able 
to say whence the impulse came, or what is the direction it 
will take. Thus may " a nation be born in a day." " Be- 
hold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the ploughman shall 
overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that sow- 
eth seed." 

The conversion of many parts of the earth, like that of 
Polynesia, will probably be effected with a rapidity which will 
take even the church by surprise. And thus it will be seen 
that " God had prepared the people, for the thing was done 
suddenly; " and " he shall bear the glory." 



THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 263 



SECTION V. 

EVANGELICAL ENCOURAGEMENT TO PROMOTE THE MISSION- 
ARY ENTERPRISE. 

But our great fund of missionary encouragement is evan- 
gelical, being derived exclusively from the word of God. 
And so animating and ample is this, that were all the others 
not only wanting, but converted into so many sources of ap- 
prehension, we should yet rely on the ultimate success of our 
endeavors. 

1. In order, however, that we may not retread the ground 
we have already passed over, nor open too wide a field for 
fresh observation, we shall here confine ourselves to three 
specific grounds of encouragement. The first of these con- 
sists of the fact that the missionary enterprise has to receive 
the benefit of a vast amount of prayer, as yet unanswered, 
in its behalf. It was predicted of Solomon, as typical of 
Christ, " prayer also shall be made for him continually." 
And it is cheering to reflect, that in the present day there is 
a sense in which the prophecy has received, literally, its evan- 
gelical accomplishment. " Last evening," wrote a mission- 
ary from China, a few years ago, " a small party of the disci- 
ples of Jesus held a meeting for prayer in my rooms, in 
behalf of the heathen around, and for the kingdom of Christ 
throughout the world. In this land of the rising sun, we may 
probably be considered as beginning that series of prayer- 
meetings which are kept up all around the world on the first 
Monday of the month ; a chain of prayer, beginning at the 
farthest east, and carried round successively as the sun ad- 
vances to the farthest west in the islands of the Pacific Ocean, 
and thus continued for twenty-four hours, monthly. 55 

Now, it is only to pursue this calculation, and to suppose 
that wherever there are Christians to pray monthly in public 
for the kingdom of Christ, there are some to pray daily in 
private for the same object, and then we are brought to the 
delightful conclusion, that prayer is made for him contin- 
ually ; that as the aged believer, like David, breathes out his 
last prayer for the glory of his reign, another generation is 
just beginning to lisp, "Thy kingdom come; 55 and as the 
Christians of one province are rising from their knees before 
the throne of grace, the Christians of another province are 



264 ENCOURAGEMENTS TO PROSECUTE 

just beginning to take up the language of supplication for 
Christ ; and thus a chain of prayer, beginning in the farthest 
east, is carried round with the sun to the farthest west, in 
the islands of the Pacific, through all the hours of time. 

And how much more pleasing does this reflection become, 
when we add to it the thought, that of all the prayers which 
are thus offered for the reign of Christ, making one unbroken 
strain of supplication, not one ever has been or can be lost. 
Is it true that every sin committed by his enemies is noticed 
by a God of unspotted holiness? that every transgression 
adds something to the treasures of his wrath ; and that when 
the cup of vengeance is full, he pours it forth on the heads 
of the guilty ? — As certainly true is it that every prayer of 
faith offered by his people in behalf of his Son, is noticed by 
a God of infinite love ; that every such prayer adds some- 
thing to the treasures of his grace ; and that when these 
treasures have accumulated to a certain amount, he pours 
them forth upon the church and the world. It is as certainly 
true that at the very moment when such a prayer is offered, 
in that very moment he answers it in his divine intention, 
though he may wisely delay for a time to answer it really. 
The suppliant himself may forget his own supplication, or may 
despair of obtaining an answer ; but He is still mindful of it. 
And however obscure the suppliant, He prizes it. It is prayer 
for his Son, and as such, it is music in his ear, of which he 
loses not a single note. It is a prayer for the coming of his 
kingdom, and as such, he places it among the perfumed sup- 
plications already offered by the saints of past generations ; 
he places it among the last aspirations breathed by " David, 
the son of Jesse," and of every ancient worthy ; among the 
mighty prayers which ascended from the fires of the early 
martyrs; among the loud cries of those whose souls are heard 
from under the altar ; among the earnest entreaties of the wide 
creation, which sighs to be delivered from the bondage of 
corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. It 
is a prayer for the salvation of a world which he loves ; and, 
with delight, he beholds it flow into a channel in which a 
stream of prayer has been for ages flowing and accumulating 
without a moment's pause, and which shall finally overflow 
and pour forth a healing flood of heavenly grace over the 
whole earth. If the success which has hitherto attended our 
missionary efforts is to be regarded as sent partly in answer 
to prayer, an indefinite amount of success is yet to come, if 



THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 265 

only to complete that answer ; for that prayer has aimed at 
nothing less than the salvation of the world. And our par- 
tial success prove* that it will come; proves that, like the 
vapor which the earth sends up to heaven to be returned 
again in fruitful showers, the supplications of the church 
form a cloud which is at this moment suspended over the 
whole field of moral cultivation, ready, at the word of God, 
to discharge its fertilizing contents. " Ye that love the Lord, 
keep not silence." 

2. But the efforts of Christians to evangelize the world 
have also to receive the benefit of many a yet unfulfilled 
promise and prediction of divine influence. This is a source 
of encouragement additional to the former ; for it both anti- 
cipates our prayers, and directs us to the object at which they 
should aim. 

We are taught to believe, in the word of God, that for 
every degree of spiritual success we are entirely dependent 
on the agency of the Holy Spirit. But, in order that this 
doctrine might tend to animate our efforts, as weli as to ren- 
der us humble, we are also assured that a measure of his in- 
fluence shall accompany every scriptural effort we make, and 
be imparted in answer to every prayer of faith we present. 
The whole system of religious means, indeed, is divinely 
appointed, and expressly intended, as that in immediate con- 
nection with which He is to act; and all the spiritual good 
already accomplished has been effected, so far as we can 
ascertain, by the Holy Spirit in this connection. But we are 
taught, also, that this gracious arrangement still leaves him 
at liberty to exceed that assurance as he pleases. Indeed, we 
arc taught this by the manner in which he often fulfils that 
very assurance ; for while he never disappoints the just expec- 
tations which it has excited in his people, the circumstances 
attending their fulfilment exhibit the endless diversity of un- 
confined and unconfinable power. Hence the reason of the 
language, " In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening 
withhold not thy hand ; for thou knowest not whether shall 
prosper, this or that." 

But while we are to regulate our expectations as to the 
success of particular efforts, we are animated with confidence 
as to the final success of the entire work. If it is not given 
us to assign the manner or the degree in which particular 
instances of success will take place, it is only, perhaps, that 
our confidence may be more undivided and fixed on the suc- 
23 



266 ENCOURAGEMENTS TO PROSECUTE 

cess destined to crown the great system of means taken as a 
whole. For the substantial import of numerous divine pre- 
dictions is, that the Spirit shall be poured out from on high ; 
that he shall be poured out upon all flesh ; and that then the 
wilderness will be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be 
counted for a forest. Now, as he uniformly operates for the 
truth, or in connection with it ; and as the object of the mis- 
sionary enterprise is the universal diffusion of the truth, we 
are encouraged to look for the fulfilment of these predictions 
in the success of this enterprise. And since the only way 
in which he has ever acted as if he had forgotten his promise, 
is, by doing exceeding abundantly above all which it had 
led us to ask or think, we are encouraged to hope for a 
period when the amount of his influence will be much greater 
than at present, as compared with the amount of our activity. 
But if such a period be in reserve, it must be nearer now 
than at any preceding moment ; and if any signs are to indi- 
cate its approach, we may surely recognize some in the re- 
turning anxiety and activity of the church for the salvation 
of the world, and in the preparation which the world exhibits 
for some great moral change. And what else will be neces- 
sary but the arrival of such a period for the consummation 
of all our missionary designs ? Only let the church behold 
the fulfilment of the promises and predictions which relate 
to the impending influences of the Holy Spirit, and the work 
will be as good as accomplished. The three thousand souls 
added to the church in one day by the preaching of St. 
Peter, would then prove to have been intended as a mere 
earnest of the rapid progress which the faith should make 
universally. Like the first rumor of victory, the news of 
salvation should seem to fly swifter than the speed of the 
messengers sent to proclaim it; and wherever proclaimed, 
the people should bow before it. 

3. And then, finally, all our scriptural activity for the 
diffusion of the gospel is in obedience to the will of Christ, 
and its final success is secured by the fact of his mediatorial 
reign. The essential connection of these two propositions 
was established by Christ himself, when he said, " All power 
is given unto me, in heaven and in earth. Go ye, therefore, 
and teach all nations ; ;) intimating, that not only is the great 
system of universal providence committed to his hands, but 
that it is committed to him expressly that it may be made 
subservient to the successful diffusion and eventual triumph 



THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 267 

of his gospel. As if, having entered the spacious treasury of 
God, and taken account of all its infinite stores ; having reck- 
oned up all the orders of heavenly intelligences, and marked 
their respective capacities for his service ; having looked 
down through all the ages of time, counted its generations, 
and numbered its events, he had said, All these shall be har- 
monized, combined into a system, and made contributory to 
the one object of human salvation. Vast as is the space they 
occupy, there is not a point in it which shall not in some way 
be impressed with the signs of their activity ; a theatre less 
ample would not be adequate to the development of my plan. 
Diversified as are the kinds and degrees of influence they are 
calculated to exert, and even hostile as many of them are to 
my purpose and to each other, there is not one of them all 
which cannot, and which shall not, yield its proportion of 
willing or unwilling service. And distant as is the period 
when the last soul shall be saved, there shall not be a mo- 
ment through the whole of the mighty interval in which all 
these countless and far-reaching agencies shall not be grad- 
ually concentrating their forces, and pointing, more and 
more directly, to that grand consummation. " All power is 
given unto me in heaven and in earth ; go ye, therefore, and 
preach the gospel." 

The connection of these encouraging views with the pre- 
ceding parts, as well as their practical application, are direct 
and important. The facts and sentiments of which these 
parts consist, are themselves encouragements to missionary 
exertion ; and as such, they naturally fall in w r ith our present 
train of remark, and multiply our incentives to increased 
activity. 

For instance, is it a slender encouragement to those who 
are embarked in the missionary enterprise to find that the 
Christian church is constructed expressly with a view to that 
great object? Should it afford us only slight encouragement 
to find that the aggressive principles of such a church were 
shown to be practicable as soon as they were made known, 
and were attended with unexampled success as soon as they 
were put into activity 1 Ought it to yield us only small en- 
couragement to find that the tenor of prophecy, even to its 
last words, tells of missionary labors and of a triumphant gos- 
pel ? Or ought it to be regarded as auspicious only in a very 
slight degree, that, as far as we have acted under the influence 
of these encouragements in modern times, they have proved 



268 ENCOURAGEMENTS TO PROSECUTE 

authentic? thr.t our missionary usefulness has been fully pro- 
portioned to our endeavors? and that advantages have flown 
from it both of a kind and a degree on which the most san- 
guine of those with whom it commenced had never calcu- 
lated? And, considering the obstacles which stood in the 
way of this success, and the remarkable manner in which 
many of them have been removed ; how considerately and 
kindly our impatience has been rebuked, our errors corrected, 
and our ignorance instructed ; how opportunely suitable 
agents have been raised up for occupying peculiar spheres 
of usefulness ; and how unexpectedly aid has come in from 
the most unlikely quarters, and enemies and apparent evils 
been converted into valuable auxiliaries and friends; are w r e 
not constrained to trace it to the glorious fact, that " The 

God of our Lord Jesus Christ hath put all things 

under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things 
to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that fill— 
eth all in all"? 

We commenced the present Part by showing that the his- 
tory of Christianity, from the earliest times to the present, is 
replete with encouragement to attempt its further propaga- 
tion ; that even in the first age of its existence, when it was 
the mark at which every weapon, human and infernal, was 
levelled, each of its conflicts was a splendid victory ; that 
even its moral weakness has been too strong for barbarian 
might ; that its false friends have never been able to corrupt 
it beyond its power of self-renovation, nor its avowed ene- 
mies to assail it, even at its greatest disadvantage, without 
finding to their cost that it is still as vigorous and aggressive 
as ever. Now, after all this accumulated evidence that Christ 
is invested with supreme power, and that he wields it for 
the protection and progress of his gospel, can we believe 
that he is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever, without 
feeling that our cause is invulnerable, and its triumphant 
issue secure ? 

On taking a survey of the political world in its relation to 
the church, we have seen that all the rest of the globe seems 
placed by Providence at the disposal of Christendom ; that 
of all the nations of Christendom, those which are especially 
distinguished with political influence over the pagan and 
Mahometan regions are the Reformed and anti-Papal pow- 
ers ; and that of these powers, Britain and America, the only 
Protestant nations capable, at present, of becoming the re- 



THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 269 

ligious teachers of the world, are the nations to which has 
been given the political command of those regions. Now, 
can we mark these " wheels within a wheel," can we ac- 
count for these imperia in imperio, without resolving them 
into the sublime truth that the Lord reigneth? Or can we 
believe that this threefold collocation of the various parts 
of the world around the missionary portion of the church, 
results from his mediatorial arrangements, without hearing 
the loud and encouraging call which arises from it to " go 
forwards " ? 

Besides which, the moral aspect of the mass of mankind, 
as we have seen, presents encouragement to the same effect. 
Not only is the heathen world arranged, in a sense, around 
the church, but its state is that of feebleness, exhaustion, and 
desire of relief. Without knowing what is the nature of its 
malady, it is sick at heart, and panting for a change. Now, 
if its political position in relation to the church evinces the 
provident activity of the reign of Christ, is not that evidence 
materially increased when viewed in connection with its 
moral condition ? It is not only brought to our door, but 
brought at a moment when it is famishing. It is not merely 
placed within our reach, but is actually fallen at our thresh- 
old. Could any conjunction of circumstances afford us a 
better opportunity of presenting the gospel, or a more encour- 
aging prospect of its favorable reception ? 

And should it not add something to our hopes that this 
happy juncture has arrived at the very moment when the 
church, after neglecting the world for centuries, is awaken- 
ing to its missionary obligations ? Is not such a coincidence 
indicative of providential arrangement, and worthy of it? Is 
it nothing that the commencement of the missionary enter- 
prise should have proved like the bursting forth of a fountain 
of internal prosperity in the church itself? Is it nothing that 
Missionary, Bible, and Educational Societies should have 
arisen precisely in that order of succession which the nature 
of the case required ? Should it pass unnoticed that all the 
great discoveries and improvements of science are more or 
less auxiliary to missionary purposes ? and even if no other 
encouraging consideration could be adduced, ought not the 
single fact that God has smiled on our efforts, to be sufficient 
of itself 1o induce us to proceed? Ought not the firm per- 
suasion that there are many who, by the blessing of God on 
our instrumentality, have been rescued from the depths of 
23* 



270 ENCOURAGEMENTS TO PROSECUTE 

heathenism, and who are at this moment swelling the chorus 
of the blessed above, to animate our zeal, and redouble our 
endeavors ? 

But the great evangelical fund of encouragement remains 
to be considered. Does the effectual fervent prayer of a 
righteous man avail much ? The missionary enterprise in- 
herits the prayers of the entire church. All the redeemed in 
heaven have prayed for it ; and it engages their sympathies 
still. And, what is infinitely more, it enjoys the intercession 
of the Great Advocate himself. Is the influence of the Holy 
Spirit essential to missionary success V Drops of the coming 
shower have already fallen ; and still the cloud enlarges and 
descends, and gives signs of the impending blessing. Is it 
necessary that infinite faithfulness and power should show 
themselves interested in it in order to assure us of its suc- 
cess ? All power in heaven and in earth is given to Christ 
to render the success of his gospel certain. The present 
evangelical economy exists for it. All the machinery of prov- 
idence is constructed to advance it. The world itself is main- 
tained only as the theatre for its progress. Nature, providence, 
and grace, are not three independent departments of the 
divine government. They are only concentric circles re- 
volving around one centre — the cross of Christ. For the 
diffusion of its influence Christ himself reigns, and harmo- 
nizes and administers all their revolutions. To this object, 
nothing within the vast circumference of his government is 
indifferent. Nothing is too great to serve it, or too minute 
to promote it. Nothing opposed to it is allowed to triumph ; 
nothing friendly to it can fail to yield its mite of auxiliary 
influence. Nothing, absolutely nothing, is allowed to quit 
the stage of activity, without leaving behind some tribute to 
its claims. 

And are these our encouragements to prosecute the mis- 
sionary enterprise 1 What else means the mediatorial sover- 
eign by associating the command to proclaim his gospel with 
the announcement that all power is his ? What else means 
the sublime declaration that all things are by him, and for 
him ? What else mean the conspicuous and undeniable facts 
that only two or three thrones of paganism are left; that a 
hand mightier than Samson's should be laid upon these ; that 
the gospel, after surviving a thousand conflicts, should be 
seen exhibiting the vigor and activity of its youth ? and that 
the church, in awaking to its diffusion, should have opened a 
new source of internal happiness and prosperity for itself? 



THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 271 

Are these our encouragements to expect success ? Then 
'* be silent, O all flesh, before the Lord; for he is raised up 
out of his holy habitation." Be hushed the language of com- 
plaint and unbelief; be silenced the taunts of infidelity, in 
quiring, Where is the promise of his coming ? be stilled the 
din of opposition to the progress of his cause, and the shouts 
of frantic superstition in every idolatrous temple. Then 
" the idols he will utterly abolish." Kalee, Vishnu, Jugger- 
naut, your shrines are doomed, your days are numbered, your 
end draweth nigh. Then it is the voice of him that crieth 
in the wilderness which we hear — " Prepare ye the way of 
the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 
Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill 
shall be made low ; and the crooked shall be made straight, 
and the rough places plain, and the glory of the Lord shall 
be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together." Islands of 
the sea, ye shall not wait in vain for his law. Africa, there 
is hope in thine end ; the hands of all thy children shall soon 
be stretched out to God. All thy myriads, India, shall re- 
joice in a true incarnation, " God manifest in the flesh." 
And, China, thy only walls shall be salvation, and all thy 
gates praise. All for which the Savior endured the cross, 
despising the shame, all for which the past has been prepar- 
ing, and which the present is needing and desiring — all shall 
be accomplished. " The great trumpet" has been blown; 
its reverberations of mercy roll round the earth, and the 
world shall hear it and live. 

And are these our encouragements to proceed? Then 
our course is obvious, our duty clear. At the most dim and 
distant prospect of such scenes the ancient prophets were 
rapt into an ecstasy of delight. With encouragements in- 
comparably less than we possess, an apostle was inspired with 
a confidence of success which nothing could dismay, and 
with an ardor of activity which nothing could quench. For 
us then to decline the missionary cause, or to look coldly on 
its progress, is to merit the execration of the world we are 
neglecting, and of the church we are refusing to assist. But 
scripturally to aid it, is to place ourselves in harmony with all 
the purposes of God, and to hasten the recovery of the world 
to Christ. 



PART IV. 



OBJECTIONS TO THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE, OR 
PLEAS AND EXCUSES FOR NEGLECTING IT. 

t 



So obvious are the obligations of the missionary enterprise, 
and the encouragements to discharge them so numerous and 
strong, that, if facts did not loudly proclaim the contrary, we 
might well believe it impossible for a single objection to be 
raised against it. We know, however, that no degree of 
excellence, even when accredited from Heaven, has ever 
proved sufficient to exempt a cause entirely from opposition ; 
and that its success, whether great or little, has never been 
owing to any lack of difficulties feared by its professed 
friends, or created by its avowed foes. Indeed, the loftier its 
aims, and the greater the spirituality of its character and 
claims, the more numerous the obstacles likely to be cast in 
the way of its progress. The missionary cause, then, by 
aiming at the most unworldly ends, and by taking the whole 
earth for the sphere of its activity, may be expected to exas- 
perate every form of irreligious hostility, and to be encoun- 
tered by every kind of objection. And when it is remem- 
bered that the ignorant are always ready to accept such objec- 
tions, however futile, as so many unanswerable arguments 
against it ; that the indolent are glad to construe them into a 
full discharge from all activity in its behalf; that the timid 
are for waiting until they are all silenced, and the ground 
completely cleared of difficulties; and that, however often 
they have been met already, error is likely to revive and 
repeat them again with the lips of each succeeding genera- 
tion, — it is by no means supererogatory or unimportant that 
such objections should be obviated again ; especially, too, 
when nearly all of them may be so easily converted into argu- 



OBJECTIONS TO THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 273 

ments for serving the very object they were intended to 
weaken or destroy. 

I. Now, if we propose to notice these objections * in order, 
the first, perhaps, which demands our attention is that which 
would represent the missionary enterprise as unnecessary. 
According to the objector, the heathen are comparatively 
safe already ; their ignorance of the gospel is involuntary ; 
they are a law unto themselves; they will not be judged by 
the high requirements of the Bible, but by the light of na- 
ture ; their eternal destiny, therefore, is far from hopeless ; 
and to pronounce it otherwise is uncharitable and cruel. 

To this representation we should object, 1. That it over- 
looks the true condition of mankind in relation to the moral 
government of God. It forgets the momentous truth that 
" all have sinned," and are condemned already. 2. It makes 
the salvation of the heathen a question of right and justice. 
It supposes that, by saving those who believe the gospel, the 
Almighty has brought himself under a kind of obligation to 
throw open the gates of heaven to the whole mass of the 
heathen world. 3. And it virtually constitutes idolatrous igno- 
rance a better security for the future happiness of mankind, 
than is afforded by the means of grace enjoyed under the 
gospel. 

The question is not, be it remarked, whether or not, in con- 
sequence of the mediation of Christ, the heathen are in a 
salvable state. This we not only joyfully admit, but are pre- 
pared, if necessary, earnestly to contend for. But this fact 
only proves their present condition to be more fearful than if 
no such salvability existed ; for it shows they are the subjects 
of moral government, and as such exposed to punishment for 
disobedience. Nor is the question whether many, but wheth- 
er any, of the heathen are saved. For we presume that the 
objector himself does not suppose that any large proportion 
among them are rescued from destruction : that he is not 
even prepared to prove that any of them will certainly be 
saved. And where, we ask, is the charity of abandoning 
them all to a vague hope of deliverance ? or what is gained 
by the admission that one here and there is possibly saved? 

* Some of these objections are very ably met in a work entitled 
"The Missionary Convention at Jerusalem; or, an Exhibition of the 
Claims of the World to the Gospel. By the Rev. David Abeel, Mis- 
sionarv to China." 



274 OBJECTIONS TO THE 

This single ray leaves the nations sitting in the darkness of 
destruction still. The true question is, Are the heathens, as a 
whole, idolatrous and immoral as they are, spiritually safe? 
Every part of the word of God — the only authority compe- 
tent to reply — affirms- that they are not. 

For, first, they are condemned by the light of nature. 
They will not be condemned for the infraction of a law of 
which they never heard, nor for the rejection of a Savior 
who was never proclaimed to them. The ground of their 
condemnation will be, that they loved darkness rather than 
the dim light of reason, conscience, and tradition, which they 
enjoyed ; that bad as their creed was, their character was 
worse; that single as their talent was, and on that account 
all the more precious, they hid even that in the earth, " so 
that they are without excuse. " 

Secondly, The word of God confirms the sentence of their 
condemnation. Although the heathen of the present day are 
involuntarily ignorant of the sacred Scriptures, never having 
heard of their existence, yet as the first act of idolatrous wor- 
ship in every nation must have been perpetrated in defiance 
of every thing sacred ; and as the descendants of those idol- 
aters evince as strong a dislike to recover the knowledge of 
God as they themselves did to retain it, not only neglecting 
to avail themselves of " that which may be known of God," 
but entailing their idolatry from generation to generation with 
accumulated abominations ; they are divinely pronounced to 
be inexcusable. The opening of the Epistle to the Romans 
is devoted directly to the establishment of this solemn fact. 
Having affirmed that " the Gentiles who have not the [re- 
vealed] law are a law unto themselves," the apostle convicts 
them of the grossest violations of that unwritten law ; and 
draws the solemn conclusion that they who have thus " sinned 
without [the revealed] law shall also perish without law." 

Nor, thirdly, does the gospel afford us any ground to hope 
that the sentence of their condemnation will be reversed 
through the mediation of Christ. That faith in the mediation 
of Christ is indispensable to the personal salvation of those 
to whom the gospel has been proclaimed, will be generally 
admitted. But when the apostle inquires concerning the 
heathen, " How shall they believe in him of whom they have 
not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?" 
if there be meaning in language, he obviously intends that it 
is as impossible for a heathen to be saved by Christ without 



MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 275 

believing in him, as it is for him to hear of Christ without a 
preacher. 

But salvation includes the renewal of the heart by the 
agency of the Holy Spirit, as well as the remission of sins 
through faith in Christ. Now, that this spiritual change is 
indispensable to the salvation of all to whom the gospel 
comes, and that the truth is the instrument by which it is 
effected, will also be generally admitted. But when we hear 
it divinely declared to the great apostle of the Gentiles, that 
the object of his mission was " to open their eyes, and to 
turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of 
Satan unto God," what can we infer, but that a spiritual 
renovation is essential to their recovery, and that the instru- 
mentality of the gospel is essential to that renovation ? To 
such as would argue against these conclusions, from the 
probable salvation of the offspring of heathen dying in in- 
fancy, we need only say, You are arguing from the case of 
those who have no actual sin, to those who are covered with 
the guilt of personal transgressions; from those who can 
neither sin nor believe, to those who have the capability of 
both ; by a very slight extension of your argument, therefore, 
you may proceed to infer that as those dying in infancy are 
probably saved through Christ without exercising faith in 
him, all are probably saved by him, though in the same des- 
titution of faith. 

But, fourthly , we cannot be adequately impressed with the 
danger of the heathen, unless we remember that their idola- 
trous condition is never represented in Scripture as a pallia- 
tion of their guilt, but as constituting its vilest element. In 
speaking of its origin, it is there traced to two sources : 
" because they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, 
God gave them up to vile affections." Here, a hatred for 
the truth combines with an act of judicial dereliction, to 
seal their doom ; for if the former adds the last shade to their 
guilt, the latter entirely extinguishes the hope of their deliv- 
erance. 

And hence, fifthly, the divine punishment of idolatry has 
frequently commenced in the present life. The Jewish dis- 
pensation was one perpetual protest against it. Whole nations 
of idolaters were exterminated to make way for the worship- 
pers of the one living and true God. Almost the only thing 
against which " the wrath of God was revealed from heaven" 
for ages was idolatry, and its immediate fruits. In the pun- 



276 OBJECTION S TO THE 

ishment of these, the great cities, thrones, and nations of an- 
tiquity, were involved in a common rain. 

But, sixthly ', if we have recourse to the word of God for 
direct statements on the subject, the answer of the living 
oracle is strictly corroborative of our worst fears : " the 
whole world," saith St. John, " lieth in wickedness." A 
people destitute of divine revelation are spoken of as " having 
no hope, and without God in the world." If we ask of their 
future state, we are tcld that " idolaters " are adjudged to " the 
second death," and that the " nations who forget God are 
turned into hell." And how truly affecting to find that this 
fearful view receives an appalling confirmation in the fears 
and distressing convictions of the converted heathen them- 
selves, concerning those of their relatives who have died in 
heathenism ! Strongly predisposed as we may well imagine 
them to be, to hope the best of their eternal state, they are 
free to confess that, taking the Bible for their guide, they 
can see no escape from the dreadful conclusion that every 
impenitent idolater is lost. And from this harrowing consid- 
eration they derive a strong ground for upbraiding us that 
we did not earlier send them the gospel, and for an earnest 
appeal that we would now redeem the time by redoubling our 
efforts for its universal diffusion. Away, then, with the false 
philanthropy which indolently and charitably abandons the 
everlasting happiness of millions to a mere peradventure. 
Let ours be the only scriptural and consistent charity, which, 
while it fears the worst, aims at the best ; and while it dreads 
their destruction, labors to the utmost for their salvation. By 
this method, at least, we cannot injure them ; by any other, 
we may be probably leaving them to hopeless destruction. 

II. Another class of objectors are inclined to regard the 
missionary enterprise as impracticable. They entertain a 
vague opinion, the grounds and merits of which they have 
never examined, that heathenism is a system too old to be 
altered, too deep-seated to be subverted, and too vast to be 
materially reduced. And hence they are apt to fortify this 
objection by the addition of another — that little or no good 
has been hitherto accomplished by missionary efforts, and 
that some stations have been actually deserted by the mission- 
aries, through want of success, or the fierceness of heathen 
opposition. 

Now, we might justifiably satisfy ourselves by bringing this 






MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 277 

objection under the neutralizing influence of the preceding, 
and asking, how the view that the heathen are so good as to 
be in little danger of destruction, is to be reconciled with 
the opposite- assumption that they are so bad as to defy all 
means, human and divine, for their moral improvement. But 
we do think it enough to refer the objector to the Second 
Part of this Essay, on missionary successes, as containing a 
ull reply to his opinion that but little benefit has hitherto 
resulted from Christian missions ; and to the Third Part, on 
missionary encouragements, in answer to his objection on 
the impractibility of the work. 

As to any difficulty which he might feel arising from the 
occasional reverses and partial failures of the missionary 
enterprise, we would remind him, first, that temporary re- 
verses are not peculiar to the diffusion of the gospel ; that 
science has sustained them, and yet ultimately triumphed ; 
that an Alexander encountered them, and yet became the 
conqueror of the world ; that from many of our present colo- 
nies, the British arms have more than once been beaten off, 
and compelled for a time to retire, but have finally gained 
their object ; that even where our hopes have been most dis- 
appointed, and are at this moment at the lowest point, our 
prospects are such that, were our object military conquest or 
national aggrandizement, instead of Christian usefulness, we 
could not entirely relinquish our attempts without incurring 
the charge of cowardice or treason ; and on what principle 
are ive to expect immunity from similar trials, or to construe 
them into a sign of certain and universal defeat? 

We would remind him, secondly, that such reverses are 
not attending the diffusion of the gospel now for the first 
time ; that its plantation in our own country was not the 
work of a day, nor effected without the endurance of perse- 
cution and death ; that the apostles themselves were often 
driven from city to city, and that we have no right to expect 
exemption from similar vicissitudes. 

But, thirdly, we have reason to believe that, owing to a 
change of circumstances, the instances of missionary stations 
once occupied, but now deserted, are incomparably fewer 
than similar reverses were in primitive times ; that, if these 
few instances were examined, it would be found that the 
majority of desertions had arisen from the opposition, not 
of heathen, but of nominally Christian governments ; and 
24 



278 OBJECTIONS TO THE 

that such opposition from this quarter is gradually ceasing 
to exist. 

Fourthly, we have to remind him that such failures, so far 
from being final, have commonly been followed by the most 
signal successes; that, as in primitive times, the "bonds" 
of the apostle " turned out rather for the furtherance of the 
gospel," so, in the history of modern missions, the scene of 
our greatest discouragement and disaster has often become 
the scene of our most grateful triumph. The Caffre tribes, 
which formerly came down on the missionary community in 
marauding bands, approach it now only to invoke the instruc- 
tions of a Christian teacher. Where once the missionary 
was prevented from landing, the New Zealand chief has 
since been seen heading hundreds of natives to honor and 
welcome his arrival. And in the Sandwich, Tahiti, and So- 
ciety Islands; in the Hervey, Navigators, Friendly, Austral, 
Paumatu, Gambier, Marquesan, and other groups, where 
once the Christian preacher dared not approach, or fled with 
unconcealed terror, are now to be found exemplary Christian 
churches, and societies for sending native missionaries into 
the regions beyond. 

Let the objector remember, next, that even if the mission- 
ary enterprise had been attended with no direct benefits 
whatever abroad, its reflex influence on the state of piety at 
home has been most amply remunerative ; so that even if the 
salvation of our own countrymen were our exclusive duty, 
we could not think of limiting the gospel to our native land ; 
if we were at full liberty to seek the welfare only of our own 
people, in order to attain that end in the shortest time, and 
in the highest degree, we should feel bound to obtain the 
reacting influence of Christian missions. 

But, finally , we have to remind him, that eminently useful 
as their legitimate reaction has been on the state of religion 
at home, there is reason to believe that a greater number of 
conversions has taken place in heathen lands, in proportion 
to the amount of means employed, than has been effected in 
the same time in Christendom. So that, unless the objector 
is prepared to arrest and destroy all the Christian instrumen- 
tality now in operation at home on the plea of inutility, con- 
sistency requires that he should advocate the continuance 
and encouragement of the same instrumentality on the ground 
of its usefulness abroad. 



MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 279 

III. Having yielded to the preceding reasons, the objector 
may allege, further, that " If the conversion of the heathen 
must needs be attempted, philosophy and learning must, in 
the nature of things, take the precedence. Indeed, it should 
seem hardly less absurd to make revelation precede civiliza- 
tion in the order of time, than to pretend to unfold to a child 
the Principia of Newton, before he is made acquainted with 
the letters of the alphabet." This, be it remarked, is not an 
objection imagined for the occasion, but the veritable lan- 
guage of one who was literally applauded by thousands for 
uttering it, and whose words doubtless echoed the thoughts 
of thousands more. Indeed, at the commencement of mod- 
ern missions, the opinion very generally prevailed among the 
friends of missions themselves, that, in barbarous lands, civ- 
ilization must pioneer the way for Christianity, but, on this 
important condition, that the Christian missionary himself 
should be the pioneer ; while the class of objectors in ques- 
tion would have him to remain at home till his way is pre- 
pared by philosophy and science. 

1. Now, conceding to the objector the credit of being 
himself a philosopher, we might begin our remarks by inquir- 
ing, Do you not know that philosophy has not yet decided 
whether the most perfect state of man be not the least civil- 
ized I And lest you should suppose that such a question 
was peculiar only to the dreaming school of Rousseau, we 
have further to remind you that travellers and historians are 
still found describing the life of the savage with so much 
rapture as to compel the belief that they would fain propose 
it as a model to the rest of the species ; and so copiously 
applying to that state the epithets " simple," " virtuous," 
and " happy," as to awaken the inquiry, whether it would 
not be wiser to employ missionaries for restoring the civil- 
ized to barbarism, rather than for raising the barbarous to 
civilization. 

2. We will suppose, however, that all men pretending to 
philosophy have arrived at the philanthropic conclusion that 
the savage tribes of the earth should, if practicable, be civil- 
ized. But here we have next to ask the objector, Are you 
not aware that the almost unanimous conclusion to which 
your order has arrived is, that those tribes are utterly irre- 
claimable? Nearly two centuries elapsed, for instance, after 
the discovery of America, before its inhabitants attracted the 
attention of philosophers. And when they did, it was only 



280 OBJECTIONS TO THE 

to be described by one as " a race just called into existence, 
and still at the beginning of their career ; " # and, by another, 
as " animals of inferior order, incapable of acquiring reli- 
gious knowledge, or of being trained to the functions of 
social life." f And do you not know that this representation 
of the natural inferiority of uncivilized man became so prev- 
alent in the class of philosophic writings referred to, that had 
the writers been constituted a committee on the subject, they 
could not have " brought up " a more consistent report ? Do 
you not know that the consequent belief of this inferiority 
became so popular, that the public mind is yet far from 
being disabused of it? but that, as far as it has been dis- 
abused, Christian missionaries have been mainly instrumental 
in dislodging the error by developing the intellectual and 
moral capacities of the traduced aborigines, through the me- 
dium of religion ? 

3. Now, it must be allowed that to report a people irrecov- 
erably brutish, is a strange and ominous commencement of 
their civilization. For, " having classed their fellow-crea- 
tures among the wild beasts of the forest, these claimants to 
the exclusive title of human beings are likely to find little 
difficulty in defending, at least to their own satisfaction, what- 
ever measures may be necessary for the subjugation or de- 
struction of the common enemy." i Accordingly, we have 
next to remind the objector, that, with singular unanimity, 
they have decreed that untutored man must be destroyed. 
Yes, the very men who would scout the idea of the Christian 
missionary attempting to benefit the savage before they have 
visited him with their grand specific of civilization, have yet 
banded together, in effect, for his destruction. " Nothing 
but powder and ball," said a European officer, " can civilize 
these savages." The tribes to which he referred, have since 
been both civilized and evangelized, by the divine blessing 
on missionary endeavors. " Do you think it possible," said 
Sir Rufane Shaw Donkin to Doctor Philip, in the Committee 
of the House of Commons, " to prevent enlightened Eu- 
ropeans, who settle in a country, from ultimately extermi- 
nating the unenlightened inhabitants? " from which we must 
infer that the certainty of the destruction of a barbarous tribe 



* M. de Buffon, Hist. Nat. iii. 484, &c. ; ix. 114. 

t M. de P. Recherches Philos. sur les Americ. passim. 

$ Lord Glenelg's Despatch to Governor Sir B. D'Urban. 



MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 281 

is in exact proportion to the advanced enlightenment of the 
colonists. 

In a proclamation issued by Sir B. D'Urban, the Caffres 
are denounced as " irreclaimable savages;" and this in the 
very face of the fact, as stated in the despatch of Lord Glen- 
elg, that " under the guidance of their Christian ministers 
they have built places of public worship ; have erected school- 
houses, and sent their children thither for instruction ; have 
made no inconsiderable advance in agriculture and in com- 
merce ; have established a trade amounting to not less than 
<£39,G0Q per annum in the purchase of European commod- 
ities ; and when as many as two hundred British traders were 
living far beyond the boundaries of the colony, protected 
only by the integrity and humanity of the uncivilized natives." 
And yet it is of this same people that we read in a volume 
just issued from the press, that " it furnishes matter of amaze- 
ment to every thinking person, how those who have legislated 
for the affairs of the colony should not long ago have seen the 
imperious necessity, dictated alike by reason, justice, and 
humanity, of exterminating from off the face of the earth such 
a race of monsters." * " The uncivilized must give way to 
the civilized," says the editor of the journal of the Royal 
Geographical Society, " and better sooner than late." f But, 
for the full exposition of this exterminating philosophy, we 
must refer to the following passage in Sir John Ross's Sec- 
ond Voyage to the Arctic Regions : " Our brandy was as 
odious as our pudding to our Esquimaux visitors, and they 
have yet therefore to acquire the taste which has, in ruining 
the morals, hastened the extermination, of their American 
neighbors to the southward. If, however, these tribes must 
finally disappear, as seems their fate, it is at least better that 
they should die gradually by the force of rum, than that they 
should be exterminated in masses by the fire and sword of 
the Spanish conquest, since there is some pleasure, such as 
it is, in the mean time, while there is also a voluntary but 
slow suicide in exchange for murder and robbery. Is it not 
the fate of the savage and the uncivilized on this earth to 
give way to the more cunning and the better informed, to 
knowledge and civilization? It is the order of the world, 



* Narrative of an Expedition into Southern Africa, &c, by Cap 
tain W. C. Harris. 

t Vol. v. pt. ii. 1835, p. 315. 

24* 



282 OBJECTIONS TO THE 

and the right one ; nor will all the lamentations of a mawkish 
philanthropy, with its more absurd or censurable efforts, avail 
one jot against an order of things as wise as it is assuredly 
established." * 

4. But next, we have to remind the objector that those 
who should have been the advocates and agents of civiliza- 
tion, having concluded, to their own satisfaction, that the 
uncivilized must be destroyed, have destroyed them ac- 
cordingly. " An uncivilized people," says Niebuhr, " has 
never derived benefit from contact with a civilized race." 
So uniformly has the extirpation of the former followed the 
arrival of the latter, that, as we have seen in the preceding 
paragraph, a theory has been formed to account for and 
justify the wide-spreading calamity. Man has impiously ap- 
pealed to the purposes of God in vindication of his own 
atrocities. The ordination of Divine Providence — a Provi- 
dence ever just and kind — has been represented as obtaining 
its fulfilment in the erection of an altar to Moloch, at which 
millions of human victims have bled. And here, let it be 
observed, we are not speaking of days long gone by — of the 
Red Cross Knights of Mexican and Peruvian butcheries — 
but of the deeds of to-day ; of the last new creed of philoso- 
phy on the subject of civilization ; of the principle just 
evolved by the spirit of the times from an induction of mul- 
tiplied facts, as the only principle to be relied on and im- 
bodied in practice ; — and this is it — the uncivilized world 
must be blotted out. 

5. Next, we have to show the objector, that where the 
civilization which has hitherto attended the progress of our 
arms, commerce, and colonization, has not exterminated a 
people, so far from preparing them for the reception of Chris- 
tianity, it has proved the greatest obstacle to its introduction. 
Aud how could it be otherwise? For what have the means 
of such civilization been, but the overflowing of our national 
depravity, and the exercise of injustice and oppression? 
Philosophy has prepared the way for the demons of avarice, 
cruelty, and licentiousness, by proclaiming the hopeless bru- 
talization of savage tribes. A civilized legislation has trans- 
ferred whole regions to colonists — transferred those regions 
from under the feet of the aboriginal inhabitants without- 
rendering them an atom of compensation. A legalized com- 

* Narrative, &c. vol. i. p. 257 



MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 2S3 

merce has for ages devoted one quarter of the globe to a 
market for human flesh. And, in its considerate regard for 
the welfare of the native tribes, one of the first buildings 
which a Christian government has erected in some of its 
colonies has been a jail for the reception of the supera- 
bundant depravity of home ; and one of the first colonies which 
it has planted has been a colony of convicts. About two 
thousand runaway sailors and convicts are at large in New 
Zealand and the adjacent islands alone, carrying demorali- 
zation and ruin wherever they come. And again philosophy 
steps in with her timely aid ; and, lest the work of destruc- 
tion should proceed too slowly, announces the crowning and 
seasonable discovery, that such destruction is perfectly in 
harmony with the plans of Heaven. 

Are we to wonder that, influenced by such examples, and in 
obedience to such doctrines, the civilized savage should have 
degraded the uncivilized savage from a brute into a demon, 
making him twofold more the child of hell than before : that 
he should have introduced among the natives European 
vices, violently seized their women, taught the horrid traffic 
of licentiousness, and introduced a train of new diseases and 
frightful evils too revolting to meet the public eye ? * that he 
should have forcibly seized their lands, plentifully supplied 
them with ardent spirits, excited quarrels among the different 
tribes, and then furnished them with arms for the purpose of 
mutual destruction ? and that the direct effect of all this 
should be to prevent the progress of education and religion ? f 
Are we to wonder that the only question of colonial policy 
with many of the colonists themselves has come to be simply 
this, whether the natives should be destroyed slowly or 
speedily — by the gun, or by drunkenness and disease? Are 
we to be surprised at finding that they themselves have come 
to stand in much greater need of the restraints of law than 
even the natives; that while these only need the Christian 
missionary, those require both the missionary and " the super- 
vision of an efficient police " ? J or that a society should 
have at length arisen for the protection of those aboriginal 
victims of civilization ? Are we to wonder that one mission- 



* So revolting, that, in the " Evidence on the Aborigines, " it is 
necessarily omitted. See pp. 20, 23. 
t Evidence on the Aborigines, passim. 
X Idem, p. 63. 



284 OBJECTIONS TO THE 

ary should be heard deprecating the influence of such civil- 
ization on the natives'? that another should declare, "I had 
ten times rather meet them in their savage state than after 
they have had intercourse with Europeans ; " and that all 
should unite in deploring the effect of such intercourse, as 
amongst the greatest obstacles to success which they are 
called to encounter ? * And can we be astonished to find the 
prejudiced, injured, and demoralized native turning away, 
and spurning the cup of salvation, because it is proffered to 
him by a Christian hand ? 

6. Advancing a step farther, we would show the objector, 
next, that instead of civilization being necessary to prepare 
the way for Christianity, Christianity is indispensable to a 
true civilization. When we speak of a true civilization, we 
mean to imply that a spurious and superficial state of social 
advancement — in which houses are built instead of wigwams, 
the clothing of the loins extended over the body, and the 
work of conquest and human butchery is conducted scien- 
tifically — may obtain independently of religion. But if by 
civilization we understand a state in which the rights of men 
are respected, and the proprieties and charities of life are 
cultivated, we are prepared to show that it has never been 
found but as the inseparable companion and effect of divine 
Christianity. For, first, admitting that barbarous tribes could 
be reclaimed without the intervention of Christian missiona- 
ries, " the mere civilizing plan does not furnish motives strong 
enough to induce men to give up the comforts of home 
merely to teach them civilization." Hence, when Dr. Coke, 
about forty years ago, was induced to form a plan for civiliz- 
ing the Foulahs of Western Africa, preparatory to the intro- 
duction of the gospel, — a plan patronized by Mr. Wilberforce 
and other leading men of the day, — it failed entirely, " and 
failed for this very reason, that the agents [mechanics] en- 
gaged to carry the scheme into effect did not find sufficient 
motives to induce them to persevere. On reaching Sierra 
Leone, their courage failed them." But Christianity could 
find agents for that very sphere — has found them ; and the 
result is, that religion and civilization are advancing among 
the Foulahs hand in hand.t 

Nor, secondly, does civilization furnish motives sufficiently 

* Evidence on the Aborigines, pp. 27, 173, 277. 
t Idem, pp. 124, 125, 129, 338. 



MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 285 

powerful to induce the heathen to be taught. " The fruit 
ripens," they say, " and the pigs get fat while we are asleep, 
and that is all we want ; why, therefore, should we work ? " 
In vain did the governor of Upper Canada repeat his attempts 
to induce the Chippeways to renounce their wandering life, 
and to attend to civilized pursuits. " Who knows," said 
they, " but the Munedoos (gods) would be angry with us for 
abandoning our own ways ; " and the homes which he had 
kindly built for them remained unoccupied — monuments of 
the impotence of civilization without religion. The apparent 
lameness of civilized life possesses no attractions sufficiently 
strong to induce the barbarian to abandon his roving habits, 
and to encounter the anger of his gods, for its sake. Such 
is the explanation of the fact furnished by the barbarian 
himself, when reclaimed by the influence of the gospel. And 
consequently, so uniform and complete has been the failure 
of the mere civilizing plan, that many intelligent Americans 
have been led to adopt the conclusion that the aborigines are 
utterly incapable of being reclaimed, and must be banished 
from the neighborhood of the white population.* 

But thirdly, if these difficulties were surmounted, the civil- 
ization of the heathen would not predispose them to the 
reception of the gospel. That part of our nature which re- 
ligion especially addresses would still be left unimproved. 
And hence India and China are not found to receive the gos- 
pel the more readily for the fact that they have been for ages 
in a state of semi-civilization. The plan which the Society 
of Friends adopted in their early intercourse with the Indians 
was, to attempt civilization first. This plan they have stead- 
ily pursued for years, for ages, at a considerable annual ex- 
pense. And what is the result of this long and costly exper- 
iment? " Within the last few years," says one of the mem- 
bers of the committee for conducting it, " we have had occa- 
sion to review the whole course of proceedings, and we have 
come to the conclusion, from a deliberate view of the past, 
that we erred, sorrowfully erred, in the plan which was origi- 
nally adopted in making civilization the first object; for we 
cannot count on a single individual that we have brought to 
the full adoption of Christianity." f 

And, then, fourthly, while we are not aware of a single 

* Evidence on the Aborigines, pp. 126, 127, 142, 143, 154, 178, 
294, 337. 

t Idem, p. 187—197. 



286 OBJECTIONS TO THE 

instance in which civilization has prepared the way for Chris 
tianity, facts innumerable might be added to those already 
adduced, to show that it has had a contrary effect. Why is 
it that the most savage tribes are more easily brought under 
the influence of the gospel, than the partially-civilized nations 
of China and India? Which of the Indian nations offered 
the most obdurate resistance to the gospel, but the Mohawks 
of Upper Canada, who, through the kindness of his majesty, 
had enjoyed the educational and civilizing process for forty 
years? Their proverbial abandonment to vice was often 
urged by their ignorant heathen neighbors as an objection 
against the Christian religion itself.* And the reason why 
the influence of civilization is thus unfriendly to religion is 
obvious. " Man," says an eloquent writer, " may master na- 
ture to become in turn its slave. Civilization, so far from 
being able of itself to give moral strength and elevation, 
includes causes of degradation, which nothing but the reli- 
gious principle can withstand." It multiplies the desires 
and passions of the heart, without any increase of power to 
the regulating principles ; and thus only adds to the length 
of the lever by which vice subverts both our moral constitu- 
tion and the fabric of society. " Reason and experience forbid 
us to expect," said Washington, on resigning the presidency 
in 1796, " that morality or political prosperity can prevail in 
exclusion of religious principles." And in 1802, the French 
republic were constrained to confess, " For want of a religious 
education for the last ten years, our children are without any 
idea of a Divinity, without any notion of what is just or un- 
just : hence arise barbarous manners, hence a people become 
ferocious." 

7. We have to show the objector, further, that wherever 
Christianity and civilization have presented themselves before 
a heathen tribe in company, the former has been invariably 
embraced before the latter. Now, this fact, we should sup- 
pose, ought to be conclusive. The plan of missionary pro- 
ceeding which wisdom and experience sanction is, not to act 
as if a savage tribe would be civilized by merely preaching 
to them the doctrines of the gospel, — this would be only the 
opposite error of those who imagine that rude people may be 
civilized without the influence of religion, — but to act on the 
principle that, while Christianity alone can excite in them a 

* Evidence on the Aborigines, pp. 133, 134. 



MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 287 

desire for improvement, nothing should be omitted of a civ- 
ilizing nature likely to subserve that desire. For from the 
moment that the Christian principle begins to operate upon 
the mind of man, from that moment the wants and cravings 
of civilization begin and advance. And we repeat, that 
wherever, in harmony with these views, Christianity and 
civilization have thus labored among a barbarous people con- 
jointly, the former has been invariably embraced first. Fif- 
teen years of effort were made by the missionaries in the South 
Sea Islands to introduce the arts of civilized life with instruc- 
tion in the truths of the Christian religion — but apparently 
in vain. At the end of that time, Christianity was adopted 
by the people, and from that moment their civilization com- 
menced,* Another fifteen years of missionary effort were 
occupied in New Zealand in a similar manner, and apparently 
without effect ; but the " very moment that Christianity estab- 
lished itself in only one instance in the island, from that 
moment civilization commenced, and has been going on hand 
in hand with Christianity, but never preceded it."t 

8. And, finally, let the objector know, that wherever 
Christianity has gained a footing, civilization has invariably 
followed. The first house which the barbarian builds is 
commonly a house of God. In vain did government erect 
habitations for the Chippeways in order to allure them to the 
habits of civilized life ; but no sooner did the gospel affect 
them than they applied to the governor for that very aid 
which they had before rejected : this was afforded, and they 
settled on the River Credit. In vain were the influences of 
civilization showered on the Mohawks ; the only effect was 
increased demoralization. But no sooner did they begin to 
embrace the Christian faith, than " each appeared to vie with 
the rest which should give the strongest proofs of industrious 
habits." f The same mere civilizing process has been tried 
on the Wyandot Indians and the Cherokees, and with the 
same comparative failure ; but " the missionary has marched 
up to the savage heart, adapted his mode of instruction to 
the condition of the Indian, and his conversion to Christianity 
has followed. This accomplished, he has been easily brought 
by gentle steps to walk in the path of civilization." § Evi- 
dence to the same effect might easily be adduced from the 

* Evidence on the Aborigines, pp. 176, 177. 
t Idem, p. 250. X Idem, p. 142. § Idem, pp. 146—153. 



288 OBJECTIONS TO THE 

history of Christian missions among the West Indian negroes, 
the remains of the Carib race, the various tribes of West 
and Southern Africa, the Hindoos of India, the Budhists of 
Ceylon, the cannibals of New Zealand, and the other island- 
ers of the South Sea. * The missions of every denomination 
of Protestants, says Bannister in his " British Colonization " 
— those of the Church of England, the Moravians, the Inde- 
pendents, the Baptists, the Wesleyans, the Scottish — all 
present animated spectacles of workshops, farms, and school- 
houses thickening around their churches and chapels ; and 
the occupations of merely civilized men, carried on with 
vigor and success, hand in hand with Christian duties, by 
tens of thousands whose fathers, and often themselves, were 
lately naked and houseless, and possessionless barbarians, f 
While they are under the influence of their superstitions, they 
evince an inanity and torpor, from which no stimulus has 
proved powerful enough to arouse them, but the new ideas 
and principles imparted by Christianity. And if facts can 
convince — if the question is to be decided by evidence — 
the objector is bound to receive it as an adjudged case, that 
the missionary enterprise is incomparably the most effective 
machinery that has ever been brought to operate on the 
social and civil, as well as on the moral and spiritual inter- 
ests of mankind. J 

IV. Convinced that Christianity is the great agent of civ- 
ilization, an objector may yet allege in excuse for not assist- 
ing to send it abroad, that we have heathen enough at home ; 
that charity begins at home, and that we must evangelize 
home first. These are pleas, which, by wearing the appear- 
ance of a pious patriotism, often beguile the sympathies of 
the unreflecting, and tend to foster a spirit of indolence in 
the cause of God, whose exposure should be its utter condem- 
nation. Let us first endeavor to exhibit their hollowness, and 
then specify certain principles by which they are to be met, 
and the truth defended. 

" We have heathen of our own at home," you say, by 
which we are to suppose that you intend persons who are 
very ignorant and very vicious. But if such persons are 
existing around you in any considerable number, does not 

* Evidence on the Aborigines, pp. 132, 166, 174, 250. 
t Idem, p. 174. t Williams, M. E. 



MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 289 

the fact implicate you in the tremendous guilt of having 
neglected them? And will you plead that which results 
from your own sinful omission of duty towards those thou- 
sands, as an excuse for neglecting a similar duty towards as 
many millions? But in extenuation of your conduct towards 
your irreligious neighbors, you probably plead that they have 
been far from entirely neglected ; that the knowledge and 
means of religion have been within their reach from infancy 
From which we learn, on your own admission, that they 
are ignorant, not by necessity, but choice — self-constituted 
heathen men, who deliberately prefer practical atheism to 
Christianity. And we ask, Is the world to be kept in igno- 
rance — are the millions abroad to be left to perish — because 
there are those at home who " hate instruction/ 5 and " love 
darkness rather than light " ? Such a sentiment you profess 
to repudiate ; but while you theoretically admit the heathen 
to a share in your sympathies, you still contend that — 

" Charity begins at home." To which it should be suffi- 
cient to reply, that this is a saying which, so far from sub- 
serving an objector to the missionary enterprise, tells directly 
against him ; for it obviously implies that charity is diffu- 
sive, and, instead of remaining at home, only begins at home. 
There is but one way, then, in which this proverb can avail 
you, and that is by implying that there has not yet been suffi- 
cient time for charity to begin her domestic duties; in answer 
to which we will only suggest the inquiry, if upwards of a 
thousand years form too short a period for the mere work of 
preparatory benevolence at home, how many thousands are 
likely to eiapse before the ends of the earth will be blessed 
with the gospel ? 

For your third proposition, that " we must evangelize home 
first," implies, not only the order of benevolent operation, but 
also the high degree of success which must attend it before 
you could think of aiding Christian missions. But for such 
a requisition we are surely justified in expecting that you can 
plead the most substantial warrant both from Scripture and 
experience. You should be able to show, for instance, that 
the apostles made the evangelization of Judea the condition 
of their attempting the conversion of the Gentiles, and that, 
as they failed of entire success at home, they never proceeded 
abroad. And you should be prepared to prove, in addition, 
that this course has been uniformly sanctioned by the divine 
blessing wherever it has been followed ; so that to confine 
•25 



290 OBJECTIONS TO THE 

our Christian activity to the limits of home, is the true secret 
of real prosperity. Now, surely you need not to be reminded 
that almost the only particular in which the apostles incurred 
the public rebuke of Providence, was for indulging the very 
disposition which you exhibit — for confining to their own 
country labors which were meant for the world ; that you owe 
it to the violation of that rule which you hold so sacred, that 
you yourself, and all your countrymen, are not living in hea- 
thenism ; and that when the apostles came to understand their 
duty, they no sooner encountered rejection from the Jews in 
any of the cities and regions they visited, than they forthwith 
" turned to the Gentiles." And as to the conclusion deri- 
vable from experience on the subject, we would merely sug- 
gest the inquiry, whether it is not high time to suspect the 
wisdom of a plan whose practical operation and proposed 
result never promise to approach each other. 

The following principles, we think, require but a very 
slight effort of attention, and of application to the subject, in 
order to show you that your objection is utterly untenable. 
The first of these principles is, that as the gospel is designed 
for every creature, we are bound to attempt its universal 
diffusion. This obligation arises partly out of our community 
of nature and interest — a relationship by which the entire 
race, instead of consisting of a multitude of detached and 
isolated individuals, is formed into a family so closely united 
by reciprocal ties, that the well-being of each is connected 
with the good of all. To complete the obligation, however, 
the will of Christ has made it authoritative and divine. Do 
you ask where and how 7 he has expressed that will ? Not 
merely by commands to be found in almost every page of his 
gospel, and which require us to " do good unto all men." 
Not merely by the authority of his own example in " taking 
away the sin of the world.' 5 But also by the diffusive nature 
of the gospel itself, by which it no sooner takes effect on an 
individual than he feels himself impelled to proclaim its vir- 
tues to others, and to urge its acceptance. And still more, 
if possible, by the divine constitution of the Christian church ; 
by which, as we have shown at large in the First Part, having 
composed it of such as have themselves found mercy, he 
requires them to act as a body organized and appointed for 
the recovery of others. 

But while every Christian is thus bound to aim at the wel- 
fare of the entire race, a second principle is, that there is an 



MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 291 

order in which his benevolent efforts are to be made. This 
law of succession is the order of nature, by which those who 
are most nearly related to us have the first and strongest 
claims on us ; the order of Providence, by which we are 
enabled to administer the means of salvation to those who 
are placed near to us earlier, and at less expense, and in 
greater variety and abundance, than we can to those who 
are more remote from us ; the order of Scripture example, 
in which we see the apostles uniformly preaching first, 
wherever they went, to those of their own nation ; and also 
the order of the future judgment, according to which no plea 
of attempting good at a distance will be admitted as an 
answer to the charge, " I was a stranger and ye took me not 
in." But in saying all this, we may appear to be only repeat- 
ing the sentiments of the objector. So far from this, how- 
ever, we are insisting on a very different subject, and one 
which, by implication, refutes his objection. For while we 
are only showing the order in which we are to work from the 
centre of our own circle outwards, he is contending for the 
time we are to remain in- that circle, and the amount of 
good we are to accomplish there, before we attempt any thing 
beyond it, and is thus practically denying any order of use- 
fulness at all. Whether the command of Christ to his apos- 
tles, that they should " begin at Jerusalem," is applicable 
here, admits of a question ; for it is quite possible that the 
reason of that injunction arose out of his relationship to 
the Jews, and not from that of the apostles — a relation 
which as it was perfectly unique, cannot be a ground of obli- 
gation to his followers. But allowing that it is applicable, 
and that it thus harmonizes with our present position ; you, 
we say to the objector, you, by pleading exclusively for home, 
are acting directly at variance with it ; for while it allows you 
to begin at home, it does not permit you to rest till you have 
aimed to diffuse the gospel " among all nations." And this 
shows that the order in which our benevolent efforts are to be 
made is not only the order of nature, of Providence, of scrip- 
tural example, and of the final judgment, but also the order 
of self-increasing Christian usefulness : the order, that is, by 
which, in seeking the salvation of those immediately around 
us first, we multiply our means, through the grace of God, 
for usefulness to the world at large. 

Hence, a third principle is, that by observing the scriptu- 
ral order of Christian activity, success at home becomes the 
means of increased usefulness abroad. Home duties, then, 



292 OBJECTIONS TO THE 

are to be discharged partly with the view of ultimately aug- 
menting our resources for every sphere of usefulness beyond ; 
so that we may say to the objector, The Christian philan- 
thropist has all your motives for seeking the welfare of those 
around him, and one in addition of which ycu know noth- 
ing, — the powerful motive of thus multiplying his means 
of benefiting the world at large. How many a Christian 
mother has found a strong additional inducement to the dis- 
charge of maternal duties from having devoted her Samuel in 
heart to the pubiic service of God ! How many a Sunday 
school teacher has labored in his high vocation with increased 
devotedness when the thought arose that perhaps his class 
contained some youthful Eliot or Brainerd for the missionary 
field ! And what a strong incentive to persevering diligence 
has the faithful pastor found in the recollection that the pros- 
perity of his flock was an element in the prosperity of the 
church at large, and consequently in the welfare of the entire 
world ! 

But from this arises, fourthly, the important principle that, 
in proportion as we scripturaliy seek the good of others, we 
ourselves are benefited. For, in the instances referred to, the 
mother, the teacher, and the minister, would be the first 
gainers by their increased attention to their respective classes 
of duties ; and the son, the pupil, and the flock, would be the 
next, though the ultimate object aimed at was the good of 
parties still more remote. And do you not know, we might 
say to the objector, that this is only in harmony with the law 
of the divine government which ordains that " he that water- 
eth others shall himself be watered " ? You surely do not 
suppose that the fulfilment of this gracious declaration de- 
pends on geographical limits. If it guaranties to the indi- 
vidual Christian the reflex benefit of all the good he aims to 
impart to his friend, and if it secures to a particular church 
the advantageous reaction of all its efforts for the welfare of 
home, it equally engages that Christians at home cannot unite 
to benefit the world, without finding the benefit return in 
showers of blessings upon themselves. The history of modern 
missions is, as we have already shown, a continuous illustra- 
tion of this great truth. So great has been the beneficial 
influence which they have been the means of exerting upon 
the church at home, that, if the missionaries had effected little 
or no good among the heathen, they have accomplished more 
for their own countries by going abroad than if they had 
remained to occupy the most distinguished station at home 



MISSIOiNARY ENTERPRISE. 293 

But of all this reflex influence you would deprive your coun- 
try. By limiting benevolent exertion to your own circle, 
you would arrest the operation of a law by which all you do 
beyond that circle is repaid a hundred fold, and without which, 
probably, there would be no benevolent activity at this mo- 
ment within that circle itself. 

And then, fifthly, this reciprocity of religious advantage 
reminds us of the great principle that the cause of human 
welfare is indivisible and one. Whereas your objection pro- 
ceeds on the assumption that the interests of religion at home 
and abroad are opposed to each other ; so that whatever is 
done to promote the one is so much lost to the other. But is 
this a supposition worthy of the professed follower of Him 
who embraced all the interests of humanity in his own person, 
and who left his gospel in trust for " every creature " ? It is 
true that the claims of a religious society are sometimes mag- 
nified beyond their due proportion of importance, and enforced 
in a manner which threatens with neglect or collision certain 
kindred institutions. And in some instances, a prior duty of 
inferior importance is underrated and neglected for a more 
remote but magnificent enterprise. But these are errors and 
evils incident alike to the cause of religion at home and 
abroad. The advocates of each, however, should remember, 
that all our duties, temporal and spiritual, are so related, that 
he who neglects the least will find no excuse in pleading that 
he was attending to the greatest ; and that all our Christian 
societies are so connected, that he who promotes one at the 
expense of another, inflicts injury upon them all. The ex 
ample of our blessed Lord in looking down from the cross, 
and tenderly providing for a mother's comfort in the very 
crisis of the world's redemption, shows that all the true in- 
terests of humanity are indivisible, and that all duty is sacred 
and one. 

V. Supposing the objector dislodged from the preceding 
position, he may yet allege that, even if it be our duty to 
attempt the evangelization of the heathen, we have not the 
necessary funds. This objection, we might reply, is untena- 
ble on various grounds : it proceeds on the assumption that 
we have already reached the maximum of our contributions 
for missionary objects ; whereas the steadiness with which, for 
so many years, they have gone on annually increasing, war- 
rants the expectation rather that they will still continue to 
25* 



294 OBJECTIONS TO THE 

increase. The objection assumes, too, that the Christian 
church is either so good or so bad as to admit of no improve- 
ment ; whereas we confidently anticipate that, in answer to 
prayer, the Spirit will exalt the character of its piety, and 
that, as one of the necessary consequences, the pecuniary 
resources of Christians will be consecrated in a larger pro- 
portion than ever to the service of God. Another of the 
false assumptions on which the objection proceeds is, that 
the expense of evangelizing the nations is always to devolve 
entirely on the church at home. But let Christianity begin 
to consecrate to Christian purposes those immense sums which 
paganism lavishes on its vain superstitions, and the church 
at home might be reimbursed, if necessary, of the expenses 
already incurred. Christianity would need little for its sup- 
port, compared with what idolatry requires. The celebration 
of the feast of the Hindoo goddess Doorga costs, at Calcutta 
alone, not less than the annual sum of five hundred thousand 
pounds sterling. " In the kingdom of Siam alone, with a 
population of four or five millions, there are at least twenty 
thousand priests, besides a great number of splendid and 
costly pagodas, supported by the voluntary contributions of 
the people. In Burmah, India, and many Mahometan coun- 
tries, we find the same lavish expenditure of talents and 
money in honor of their objects of adoration. " * Let these 
resources be turned into the channels of Christian benev- 
olence, and not only will they be sufficient, by the divine 
blessing, to irrigate their own desert, but even to help in 
fertilizing whatever waste places might still exist in our own 
borders. 

But most of all do we demur at the grave assumption, that 
the ultimate success of the missionary enterprise depends on 
the amount of our funds. That money is necessary for the 
prosecution of our object, we admit ; but, remembering that 
an almighty Agent is graciously working with us and by us, 
the question of "how much? " admits not of human calcula- 
tion. And remembering also that in the promises of divine 
approbation and success, the stress is laid, not so much on 
the intrinsic value of the offering or service, as on the man- 
ner in which it is rendered, we are warranted in affirming 
that the consummation at which we aim depends not on the 
amount of our resources, but on the entireness with which 

* Abe6l on Missions, p. 142. 



MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 295 

we consecrate that amount, whether great or small, to the 
service ; that were we, on the one hand, to devote a thousand 
fold more to it, we should not be warranted to expect success, 
if still we sacrilegiously kept back a portion unemployed ; 
but that if, on the other hand, our funds, and agents, and 
resources, were to be ever so much reduced from what they 
now are, still, if they were all we could furnish, we should be 
justified in expecting complete success. Let the multitude 
to be fed be ever so large, and the means of feeding them 
ever so small, still if the whole of that scanty provision be 
cheerfully placed in the hand of Christ, in that hand it will 
be so greatly multiplied, that they shall " all eat and be filled." 
To suppose, in such a case, that we should fail in diffusing 
the gospel over the earth, is to suppose, either that vve are 
not responsible for that diffusion, or it is to make that respon- 
sibility return, and rest on him who had imposed it. 

VI. Still the objector may plead, that, since our Lord 
prayed for the visible union of all his followers in order to 
the conversion of the world, we ought not to embark in the 
missionary enterprise until that union has been effected. 
Not only do we admit that this representation of the prayer 
of Christ is correct, — we believe that the spirit of disunion 
among Christians is doing more at this moment to prevent 
the diffusion and success of Christianity in the world than all 
other causes together. But the propriety of deducing and 
adopting the objector's inference from this admission we 
unhesitatingly deny. We have to remind him first, and 
chiefly, that the duty of diffusing the gospel is not made to 
depend on our union, but on the explicit command of Christ. 
And, next, we have to suggest, that our Lord may have 
evinced his wisdom in this respect, by making our efforts for 
that diffusion conducive to the restoration of that union. 
Now this, we submit, is actually the fact. The common 
ground of benevolent activity is almost the only bond of the 
visible union of Christians which remains unbroken. And 
it is the growing conviction of the writer, that, as this is 
almost the last ligament which visibly holds them together, 
so it is likely to be the first and the principal means which 
God will employ in again restoring them to each other's love. 
Whether he will compel them thus to unite, in mere self- 
defence against the counter-activity of a world whose inter- 
ests they are betraying and neglecting by their divisions, or 



296 OBJECTIONS TO THE 

whether, by an effusion of the Spirit of love and zeal, he may 
lead them to think more of the will of Christ than of the 
claim of party, we stay not now to inquire. But judging 
of the superior facilities for union which plans of benevolent 
activity present, and from the deepening conviction of Chris- 
tians that such combination is made essential to the con- 
version of the world, we repeat our belief that benevolent 
cooperation is likely to be the principal means of restoring 
Christian union. 

Thus the objection against Christian missions is turned 
into an argument in their behalf. They make us feel that 
we have a common object and a common interest ; and what 
can the effect of that be but to inspire us with sentiments of 
reciprocal affection ? Let us only meet on common ground, 
hail each other as auxiliaries to the same grand cause, and 
cooperate for the common interests of the world, and how 
necessarily would our groundless dislikes give place to a feel- 
ing which would deprecate every project to disjoin, and wel- 
come such measures only as tended more closely to unite ! 
If it be true of the blessed God, that " they who know his 
name will put their trust in him," it must be true, in a sub- 
ordinate but corresponding sense, that the more his people, 
as such, know of each other — of their mutual resemblance 
to him, their common concern for the salvation of the world, 
and their zeal for his glory — the more sincerely will they 
admire each other's piety, and the more will they unite for 
the achievement of their common object ; while the only con- 
tention between them will be that of the vine with the olive, 
which shall bear the best and most abundant fruit. 

VII. The objection of the millenarian — that the conver- 
sion of the heathen is reserved for the second coming of 
Christ, and, consequently, all attempts to effect the object by 
the diffusion of the gospel will prove useless — we have con- 
sidered at length in the First Part of this Treatise. The reader 
may remember that we have there endeavored to show, that 
such an inference is at variance with some of the admitted 
principles and necessary deductions of divine revelation ; 
that it is not warranted by prophecy ; but that the very 
reverse is the doctrine of the prophetic Scriptures, and is 
found to be in perfect harmony with every other part of the 
word of God by which its correctness can be properly tested. 
The prosecution of the inquiry discloses, if we mistake not, 



MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 297 

the important facts, that whatever conflicts may hereafter 
ensue between the church and the world, will arise from the 
success of the gospel; and that whatever judgments the earth 
may yet be called to witness, will only concur with the power 
of the gospel to enlarge the domains of the Christian faith. 
So that those very predictions which are too often made to 
depress the hopes and dishearten the zeal of the church, will 
be found calculated, when rightly understood, to animate its 
activity as with the blast of a trumpet. 

VIII. And another objection, not very remotely allied to 
the last, amounts to this: " The time is not come, the time 
that the Lord's house should be built.'' When that selected 
time arrives, the Almighty will easily find means to accom- 
plish the conversion of the world ; and till then, ail our efforts 
are premature and presumptuous, and must prove abortive. 
In reply to this Islamite doctrine, we might say to the ob- 
jector, Your conduct in urging this objection is inconsistent 
with your creed ; for how do you know that it is the will of 
God that you should urge it? Whv " use the means" for 
correcting our supposed errors ? Are you not by this very 
act " taking God's work out of his hands " ? Had you not 
better leave him to take care of his own cause? When " the 
time comes" for God to correct our errors, will he not find 
an abundance of means without disquieting you? and till 
then, is it not presumptuous for you to attempt to " take the 
work out of his hands " ? If, however, on some inexplicable 
ground, you still consider yourself justified in" using means" 
to denounce the missionary enterprise, are you using means 
enough 1 Ought not your opposition to become more practi- 
cal and laborious 1 If you really believe we are forestalling 
the appointments of Heaven in assailing the idolatries of the 
heathen world, and tormenting the demons before their time, 
ought you not to employ counter-missionaries, for instance, to 
protect those abominations, and to prolong their reign for a 
season longer ? But perhaps your principle of interference 
only applies to those cases in which labors are unnecessary, 
and serious sacrifices not required. 

You surely do not presume to plead that because God per- 
mits the existence of heathenism — does not arbitrarily de- 
stroy it — therefore it is not for you to attempt to reduce it. 
This plea would not avail you unless you could assign the 
same reasons for your conduct which God can for Ms. And 



298 OBJECTIONS TO THE 

not only must your reasons be identical with his, — your 
conduct in relation to heathenism must harmonize with his. 
But this it cannot, except by your cordially embarking in the 
missionary enterprise. For has he not maintained an un- 
broken contest with the evil? Have not cities, nations, a 
world, perished for it? Has your zeal ever flamed against 
it ? He has appointed and put into operation a grand system 
of means divinely adapted to subvert the reign of evil ; what 
are you doing to give that system impulse and activity ? He 
has laid a command on every member of his church to assist 
in sending the gospel to every creature ; so that, if you are not 
rendering it obedience, and calling on others to join you, the 
sense in which you are content to permit the continuance of 
heathenism differs essentially from the only sense in which he 
can be said to suffer it. Every attribute of his nature is in 
hostility to it ; every principle of his government — the whole 
course of his providence — is arrayed against it ; the great 
wonder, the miracle of his mercy, is, that he should permit 
the continuance, age after age, of a church which he has 
called into existence, partly for the purpose of extinguishing 
that evil, but many of whose members still plead, " The time 
is not come — the work is not ours, but God's. " 

Perhaps, however, you profess to be only waiting for the 
necessary indications, in order to evince your perfect readi- 
ness to act. But yours must be a very controllable zeal, if 
it does not sometimes quicken into impatience for the arrival 
of the sufficient signs. Inspired men of old often expressed 
themselves in language which showed that they would fain 
have multiplied themselves and their means a thousand fold 
against the prevalent idolatry. Now, that must be a state of 
mind of a very different order which leads you to regard ex- 
emption from such hostility as a favor, and to denounce the 
activity of others as presumption. 

But what are the signs from heaven which you would deem 
sufficient to warrant you in joining the missionary enterprise 7 
Would a direct and express command possess any weight 
with you ? Never has the Lord of the church ceased to say, 
not to you merely, but to every member of that church, 
" Preach my gospel to every creature." Would you regard 
the concurrence of the providence of God with the command 
of his word, as an additional call to action ? Behold it in the 
disappearance of numerous obstacles to missionary exertion ; 
in the rapid accumulation of important facilities; and in the 



MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 299 

fact that so many hundreds of agents are at this moment 
actually occupied in the missionary field. Would you regard 
their success as another indication that the time for action 
has arrived? How could you venture a different interpreta- 
tion? Here, then, are thousands converted by their instru- 
mentality ; you surely will not think, for the sake of a theory, 
of ascribing their change to any other than a divine agency. 
Remember, then, that each of these conversions is to be re- 
garded as an argument from heaven against your non-inter- 
fering views : and as a divine reward to the friends of mis- 
sions for having acted on principles directly opposite. And 
would you interpret the readiness and anxiety of the heathen 
to receive Christian instruction as an additional sign that 
the missionary era had come? The Lord of missions ap- 
pears to have regarded such readiness as a call to activity, 
when he directed his disciples to mark that the fields were 
white to the harvest. Far wider fields invite our attention. 
In every direction, the vision of the "man of Macedonia" 
is, in effect, repeated, and heathen voices are heard lifted up 
in earnest application for help. 

Now, is it possible that you should still require other signs 
that the period for labor has come, before you will consent to 
move ? The reformers, there is ground to believe, deemed 
less than these sufficient to justify them in attempting to shake 
the church and the world. And, judging from the results, 
you would not say that they displeased God by the attempt. 
His most distinguished servants appear to have regarded his 
express command, and opportunity to perform it, as always 
sufficient to create obligation to obedience ; and the success 
of their endeavors has convincingly shown that they were 
not mistaken. With such strong and numerous inducements 
to missionary devotedness as we possess, then, our only fear 
for ourselves is, lest we should incur the rebuke of " the un- 
profitable servant ; " and for you, lest you should fall under 
the spirit of the fearful denunciation, " Curse ye Meroz, 
curse ye bitterly, because they came not out to the help of 
the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty." 

One of the remarks inevitably suggested by our survey of 
the preceding objections is, that each of them, relying on 
some partial view of the truth, overlooks the great principle 
of revelation to which it belongs, and by which it must be 
decided. Who, for instance, could ever have brought him- 
self to look on heathenism, as if it were in amicable coexist- 



300 OBJECTIONS TO THE 

ence with the divine government, or on the heathens them- 
selves as being in any other state than that of the most fear- 
ful exposure to everlasting death, unless he had lost sight of 
the universal and unrepealable law, " Thou shalt have none 
other gods before me " ? Or, who could have deemed it a valid 
objection to say that heathenism is unalterable, until he had 
forgotten that the gospel was launched at first into an ocean 
of heathenism — for, with the exception of Judea, the whole 
world was an idolatrous temple ; that if the case is altered 
now, the gospel has been the means of effecting the change ; 
that he himself and those around him are, in their own persons, 
an answer to the objection ; and that the gospel is still the 
power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth? 
Or, who could think that he was acting scripturally in con- 
fining his evangelical desires and endeavors exclusively to 
one nation, even though that nation be his own, until he had 
forgotten the great principle of our Lord's command, that the 
gospel is designed equally for all nations? 

Another reflection forced on us by these objections is, that 
many, if not all of them, have been defended with a pertina- 
city which zeal for the truth can seldom command. If those 
who entertain them set a high value on religious distinctness 
from the world, they are certainly unfortunate in having 
adopted objections to the missionary cause, which, as far as 
they go, completely identify them with the world. And we 
will venture to suggest whether it ought not to awaken their 
suspicion as to the soundness of their views on finding, that 
if indolence, self-indulgence, and unbelief, could speak on 
the subject, it would be to repeat the very same objections in 
the same language. 

But chiefly we are reminded, that Christian missions have 
this mark, in common with the gospel, that they are not 
of men, but of God, that every objection brought against them 
can be so easily converted into an argument in their behalf. 
And this removal of the war from our own into the enemy's 
country takes place, be it observed, in every instance, not 
merely by a triumphant appeal to undeniable and accumu- 
lating facts, but also on the authority of one or more of those 
great principles of the word of God which the objector had 
overlooked. Thus does he plead that missionary effort is un- 
necessary, because the state of the heathen is not so desper- 
ate as we seem to imagine? We can show him that if ram- 
pant rebellion against God be a state of guilt ; if to be hope- 



MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 301 

less and godless be a condition of misery : and if the most 
fearful threatenings of the offended Majesty of heaven be a 
just ground of terror, then is the whole idolatrous world in a 
state of the most crying and appalling want; for such are 
their guilt, and wretchedness, and danger, that hell may be 
said to have come to them on this side death. Does he 
regard the missionary object as impracticable? We can show 
him that the difficulties are vanishing while he is speaking of 
them. We can call for the trophies of divine success — and 
they come from the four quarters of the earth. Impracticable ! 
What, when hundreds of missionaries are actually in the 
field ; thousands, tens, hundreds of thousands of heathens 
converted and collected into Christian societies, and of their 
children receiving Christian instruction ! No good done ! 
Spirits of the blessed, who have ascended from the mission- 
ary churches to join the ranks of the redeemed out of all 
nations and kindreds, and who are now before the throne, — 
is your salvation nothing? Nothing to yourselves, as you 
glance from the depths you have escaped to the heights you 
have attained ! Nothing to the society you have joined ! 

Nothing to Him, the light of whose countenance is at this 



moment falling on you, and making your heaven ! The 
objection is turned into a rebuke that we should have been 
detained by it so long. In a word, whatever his pleas may 
be, unless he can show that the great command of Christ to 
preach the gospel to every creature — a command frequently 
repeated, and variously enforced in Scripture as the law of 
the Christian church — has been modified or repealed, we 
confidently bring down its annihilating weight on all his 
objections, and challenge him, as one included in the principle 
which it contains, that all who possess the gospel are bound 
to cooperate to the extent of their ability in giving it to the 
world. 

26 



PART V. 



THE WANTS OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN RELATION 
TO THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE, OR, THE NECES- 
SITY OF EMINENT PIETY AND ENTIRE CONSECRA- 
TION IN ORDER TO ENLARGED SUCCESS. 



THE WANTS OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN RELATION TO 

MISSIONS. 

The prosecution of our prescribed course has brought us 
to a very important part of our subject. If, as we have shown 
in the First Part, the church is constructed expressly to im- 
body and diffuse the influence of the cross throughout the 
world ; if the Second Part proves that, as far as the church 
has answered this end in the modern missionary enterprise, 
its success has been fully proportioned to its efforts ; if the 
Third Part has shown that encouragements from every quarter 
urge and animate us to advance in our missionary career ; 
and if the Fourth Part assures us that every objection to our 
course becomes, when rightly considered, an argument to 
redouble our efforts, — an unreflecting reader might be ready 
to conclude that nothing remains for us but mutual congratu- 
lations and unalloyed satisfaction. 

The enlightened Christian, however, need not be reminded 
that as, in his own experience, a sense of joy in God, and of 
dissatisfaction with himself, often meet together in the same 
moment, so the hour in which the church may have the 
greatest reason to rejoice through God in its relative useful- 
ness, may be the hour in which the dust of self-abasement 
may most become it on account of its own defective instru- 
mentality. He will remember that, however " the manifold 
wisdom of God " may have been displayed in organizing his 
church for usefulness, but few of its members as yet may 



WANTS OF THE CHURCH AS TO MISSIONS. 303 

have perceived that adaptation, and fewer still have combined 
to exemplify it in practice. He will remember that, while the 
church now, as compared with what it has been, may be doing 
much, yet, compared with what it should be, it may be doing 
nothing ; that its fitness for one office by no means implies a 
fitness for every order of duty: and that its very improve- 
ment may be made in a manner which may justly incur 
rebuke. He is aware that much collective activity may exist 
where there is but very little individual zeal; that, owing to 
the blessing of God on that activity, opportunities of useful- 
ness may increase more rapidly than our readiness to seize 
and improve them ; and that, in this manner, success itself 
may become a snare and a burden. And remembering all 
this, the effect of the preceding survey will be that so far 
from hastily surrendering himself to the pleasing but hazard- 
ous conclusion that all is well, he will feel that now has 
arrived the time for humble, searching, anxious self-examina- 
tion ; that to detect an evil now, may be the means of saving 
us from undue elation at present, and from much mortifica- 
tion in the future ; and that to point out the great want of 
the church now, may be to bring to it present prosperity, 
and to hasten by ages the glory of God in the salvation of 
the world. 

But how is this examination of the church to be con- 
ducted ; or, where is to be found the test of its fitness for 
converting the world ? This can only be found in its original 
constitution. Now, on looking back to our exposition of 
Christian instrumentality, it will be seen that, according to 
that constitution, the individual Christian, the particular 
church, the entire Christian community, — the whole, pene- 
trated and actuated by the Holy Spirit, — is intended rela- 
tively to act in harmony with the cross for the good of the 
world. Every addition made to it is meant to be an addi- 
tional agent for carrying out the purposes of the cross. Every 
element at work in it — whether it arises from numbers and 
combination, from eminent piety, self-denial, and zeal, or 
from prayer, and the influence of the Holy Spirit uniting with 
the whole — is an element for drawing men to Christ. 

But if the full efficiency of the church for this end de- 
pends, under God, on the entireness of its consecration to 
this office, it will follow that the slightest diversion of its in 
fluence from this object is so much given to the very power 
which it was called into existence expressly to counteract ; 



304 THE WANTS OF THE CHURCH 

and that this is, in effect, the secret of its long decline 
and fall. 

But, then, it follows also that if, at length, in that depressed 
state, the church should awake to a sense of its responsi- 
bility as a missionary agent for the world's recovery to Christ 
— if, then, it should withhold any proportion of its influence, 
in that very proportion it would stand disqualified for answer- 
ing its great original design. In this position the church 
now stands ; and here, we repeat, is the test of its fitness, at 
present, for its missionary office. To bring it to this test, 
indeed, has been the duty of every age. But never so much 
so as now, when, after the slumber of centuries, it is meditat- 
ing the renovation of the world. 

Now, on calling upon the Christian church to muster for 
this review, is it not ominous at the outset, that we know not 
who will appear ? In answer to the name of Christian, 
indeed, about two hundred millions present themselves. But 
the great majority of these Christianity disowns. She knows 
them not. Many of them are among the chosen of Satan. 
The heathen around them are the worse for their vicinity. 
They must be dismissed by millions to the ranks of the foe. 
And thus, like Gideon's army, the number is reduced by a 
single sweep to a comparative few. And here goes, at first, 
the influence of numbers. 

But perhaps it may be said, that large portions of Chris- 
tendom make no pretensions to the missionary spirit, and 
ought not, therefore, to be subjected to the examination. 
Without stopping to contest the point, and in order to be 
definite, let us suppose that, after all such portions have been 
dismissed, those who remain before us consist of the various 
denominations professing evangelical Christianity. Let us 
indulge the hope that as they are so reduced in number, and 
as each equally professes to live for the salvation of the world, 
they have at least learnt the unspeakable value of union. 
United ! Union ! What does it mean ? When did it exist ? 
Is it not a fiction of the fancy ? If there be such a thing, 
the church practically disowns it. Whatever sympathetic 
connection may here and there exist among individual Chris- 
tians, the church, as a church, disowns it. See how these 
Christians hate ! In their visible and public capacity, they 
scorn to approach each other. They expend more strength 
in struggling with each other than in encountering the world. 
The world looks on amused. Infidelity claps her hands 
And thus is lost the influence of union. 



IN RELATION TO MISSIONS. 305 

But though it be thus divided as a whole, let us hope to 
find that the members of each particular church are alive 
and devoted as one man to its missionary design. Let us 
take one church as a specimen of all. Here are a thousand 
souls, we will suppose, assembled for Christian worship. As 
the service proceeds, the time for commemorating the great 
doctrine of the cross arrives. The majority arise and quit 
the place , thus practically disavowing all belief in the 
doctrine, or all interest in it; and leaving it to be inferred 
that, for aught they care, the world may forget, if it will, 
that Christianity has a cross, or that Christ died on it for our 
redemption. 

But still we will suppose a large minority remains. Do 
we, however, flatter ourselves that we shall find general co- 
operation and devotedness here ? We only evince our igno- 
rant simplicity. True, they have just pledged themselves 
anew at the table of the Lord to the cause of the world's 
salvation ; but let us wait a while, and we shall soon see how 
little that means — nothing incompatible with the most un- 
moved worldly self-indulgence. We expected to see them all 
equally interested in the object ; but let us wait a while, and 
we shall see that the task of keeping them thus partially 
awake devolves entirely on two or three. We might have 
expected to see these, at least, nobly devote to Christ a por- 
tion of the time which the world devotes entirely to the pur- 
suits of gain; but no; religion must wait till the world has 
been fully satisfied; and then, if a few of the jaded moments 
of evening are of service, they are spared. 

Agents of mercy are wanted for distant lands; and we 
might have expected to see them start forth from the ranks 
of the rich and the poor alike ; or, rather, we might have 
looked to see those who would require the least delay for 
educational preparation and support, offer themselves first. 
Might we so? What, when the act would involve the danger 
of losing caste with the world? Surely we did not expect 
to see them incur such a risk merely for the sake of saving 
immortal souls. True, the act would have the noblest effect 
both on the church and on the world ; but we cannot expect 
them to sacrifice gentility, and ease, and the prospect of 
worldly gain, for such an object ! 

Wealth is wanted to prepare and send forth those who do 
offer themselves — all the superfluous wealth of the church. 
But what do we behold ? Not only is every other claimant 
26* 



306 THE WANTS OF THE CHURCH 

satisfied first ; not only is self, the most clamorous of them 
all, appeased ; but only a fraction of what is left is then 
placed on the altar of Christ. 

Prayer is wanted ; and from what we hear them say of its 
efficacy, we might expect that, however remiss in other 
means, they would not neglect this; that perhaps they were 
indifferent to the others, only to reserve the ardor of their 
souls for this. But when the monthly or periodical season 
comes round, when the church is supposed to be all collected 
and intent on obtaining an audience of Heaven on the sub- 
ject of the world's salvation, what do we behold? Crowds 
thronging and besieging Heaven with supplications? the 
strong cries of a church travailing to bring forth? The reply 
is too obvious to be necessary. Here, then, is lost the influ- 
ence of self-denial, consistency, and prayer. 

That exceptions to this representation exist, we gladly 
admit — exceptions which stand out in bold and bright 
relief — and owing to which it is, that the church is not 
actually retrograde. But that this is the rule, we confidently 
appeal to observation and experience. Need we then ask if 
the Spirit is visibly and gloriously present with the church? 
Present with individual ministers and members of the church, 
to a certain extent, he is ; present with certain societies com- 
posed of a number of such ministers and members, he is — 
societies which are the salt of the churches, as Christians 
are said to be the salt of the earth — but present with the 
church, as a church, he is not. As a church, Christians do 
not invoke him. As a church, they are not awake to their 
responsibility. And how can he, the great Missionary Spirit, 
sent to convince the world of sin, honor a church which is 
so generally content that the world should remain uncon- 
vinced ? How can his activity combine with its comparative 
indolence? — his love mingle with its internal hatred? — his 
gushing benevolence with its supine self-indulgence? 

In thus exposing the defects of the Christian church, in 
relation to its missionary office, we have abridged the unwel- 
come task as much as is consistent with the object of showing 
that defects exist with a view of pointing out the remedy. 
And if this sketch be correct, can we wonder if the world is 
slow to receive the gospel at our hands ? What reason has 
the church, as a church, yet given the world that she herself 
believes it? Here and there an individual member acts out 
his principles, and the world admits his sincerity ; and, how 



IN RELATION TO MISSIONS. 307 

ever it may dislike his holiness, is almost as ready to admire 
his consistency and exemplariness, as the church itself. But 
what reason has the church generally given the world to be- 
lieve it sincere? For fifteen hundred years the wealth of the 
world was passing through its hands; did it employ that 
mighty talent for the world's conversion? The world itself 
was at its feet; did it do much better than trample on it? 
Again, the world, in a nobler sense, is at our feet ; asking us, 
if not in anguish of soul, at least with marks of visible con- 
cern, what it must do to be saved. Providence is urging us 
to answer the question ; Christ is saying, " Go and proclaim 
the cross to every creature; " and we ourselves, professing to 
believe that we hold in our hands the means of success — 
professing to exult that the gospel is the power of God unto 
salvation — can yet hardly bring ourselves to tell more than 
one in a thousand, that there is any salvation ; and, profess- 
ing to believe that Christ has an absolute claim on all we 
have, can hardly bring ourselves to surrender sufficient to tell 
that one in a thousand. O, if our Lord had forbade self- 
denial — if he were now to repeal the law of self-consecration, 
and to enact a law of self-indulgence — would not the great 
majority of his people be found in a state of perfect obedience ? 
If living to themselves would convert the world, how long 
since would the world have been saved ! 

Do we — can we — wonder that no more good has been 
effected by us? What, when we are acting in almost entire 
oblivion of the Scripture theory of Christian usefulness? 
When, as members of the Christian church, we are violating 
almost every part of that theory ? What, when we have had 
to act in the face not merely of a sinful world, but of the still 
more hostile influences arising from our own selfish incon- 
sistency ? When the influence of the little we have done 
has been fearfully diminished by the neutralizing effect of 
the much we have left undone? We have had to act against 
ourselves. The world quotes us as authority against our- 
selves. Our habits neutralize our acts. Our deeds contra- 
dict and silence our professions. The powerful influence 
which should have arisen from our evident union, disinter- 
estedness, and self-consecration, though lost to us, is not lost 
to the conflict in which we are engaged ; it is arrayed against 
us ; it is more effectual than all other influences combined, 
in rendering powerless the effect of our actual efforts. The 
wonder is, then, that efforts so slender, divided, and languid 



308 THE WANTS OF THE CHURCH 

as ours are, should have been attended, not with so little, 
but with so much success. The glory is more evidently the 
Lord's. 

Can we doubt, then, what it is which the missionary 
church of Christ requires? simply to realize the Scripture 
requirement of entire consecration to its office. Let us not 
say, in excuse, it has never been realized. Never by a 
church, perhaps, but by more of its individual members than 
history records, or than we may imagine. Religion has ever 
had a few such on the earth ; and to that two or three the 
church has been more indebted, under God, than to all its 
other contemporaneous members together. If corrupt, they 
have saved it from sinking under the weight of its evils. If 
sunk, they have helped it to rise. And, hence, when an 
enlightened posterity records the annals of their age, their 
names are almost the only honored. When the Holy Spirit 
himself indites the " Acts of the Apostles," he comparatively 
passes by all the rest, to do honor to the man who went 
through the world exclaiming, " None of us liveth to himself." 
Let us not say, again, " My domestic claims — my children — 
require my time, absorb my property, and thus curtail my 
usefulness." They were meant to increase our usefulness ; 
to augment the moral treasures of the church ; to multiply 
its agencies of good to the world. Are they not training up 
for God ? What, is the sum of our moral history to be, that 
we contributed a trifle in money to the cause of Christ, and 
left our children to carry on the cause of Satan ? Better for 
the Christian cause had we never been born. As if they had 
been sent down to us from heaven with a charge from Christ 
to prepare them for his service, let us look on them as the 
instruments by which, while we live, we may extend our use- 
fulness ; and by which, when dead, we may still continue to 
say to posterity, " None of us liveth to himself." 

Can we doubt, then, we repeat, what it is which the 
church requires? A growing desire to be useful we have; 
and a growing disposition to be active. But that which we 
most require, and for the want of which no activity can ever 
compensate, is a fitness, that moral fitness which springs from 
disinterested devotedness to the one object of the world's 
salvation. If religion has not yet mastered us, how can we 
expect by it to master others ? How can we speak effectively 
for religion to the world, when it is so necessary that some 
one should plead for religion with us ? How can we expect 



IN RELATION TO MISSIONS. 309 

to reclaim the world to Christ, when large tracts of our own 
character are unreclaimed ; when the most fruitful and cher- 
ished tracts within us are pagan tracts, where the objects and 
idols of sense are worshipped? — Mahometan tracts, where 
self-indulgence reigns ? — a moral waste ? Unless all the 
rules of fitness between means and ends are to be dispensed 
with, how can we expect the world to believe that it is per- 
ishing until thev behold us in anguish f or their rescue ? The 
world is selfish ; how can we hope to reclaim it if we our- 
selves are not models of disinterestedness? "If you Chris- 
tians have known all these things," says the pagan, " and 
really believed that we ignorant heathen must perish unless 
we believe in your Jesus Christ, how could you leave so 
great a part of the world, for so many generations, to go 
down to perdition, without coming sooner to tell us of this 
only* way in which we can be saved ?" — What can the 
missionary say? This is not idle fancy; it is matter of dis- 
tressing fact.* 

When a great experiment is to be made in natural philos- 
ophy, the preparation of the apparatus to be employed will 
often occupy a longer time than the experiment itself. The 
uninitiated spectator is surprised at the patient and laborious 
anxiety evinced by the experimenter to bring his instruments 
into a state of working perfection. But well he knows, from 
many a previous failure, that the presence of a single particle 
of matter foreign to the experiment is often sufficient to 
vitiate the whole process. Christ proposes the great moral 
process of drawing the world to himself; the Christian church 
is the apparatus to be employed, and worldly selfishness or 
sin the object to be operated on. Do we not see the vital 
importance that not a particle of the thing to be destroyed 
should adhere to the instrument employed to destroy it? Do 
we not see the nature of the fitness we need — perfect con- 
trast to the world? And that this fitness is indispensable to 
success? O for such an instrumentality! We ask not that 
it should consist at first of many Christians — their success 
would not depend on their number — but of men penetrated, 
possessed, with the conviction that Christian consistency and 
entire devotedness to the world's recovery are one and the 
same thing ; that without such intense devotedness to that 

* The Claims of 000,000,000 of Heathen ; by Hall and Newell, 
American missionaries at Bombay, p. 77. 



310 THE WANTS OF THE CHURCH 

one object nothing morally great has ever been achieved ; 
men who feel that they are not their own as intensely as if 
their persons were marked and sprinkled with the blood 
of Christ; and who, in the spirit of that self-consecration, 
should resolve that, by God's help, the world should feel 
their influence before they die. O for such an instrumen- 
tality ! The church should be converted, and the world too ! 

1. Now, if eminent Christian devotedness constitute the 
great want of the church in its missionary relation, deep hu- 
mility must be regarded as our first requisite, both on account 
of that essential deficiency, as well as to prepare us for greater 
improvement and success in the future. Had we " done all 
those things which are commanded " us, it would still have 
been our place to come into our Master's presence, saying, 
" We are unprofitable servants ; we have done that which 
was our duty to do." Where, then, is the depth of abasement 
equal to the necessities of the case, now that we have almost 
entirely neglected that duty ? And yet where are the tears 
of the church on account of that neglect ? How much easier 
it is to find the signs of self-gratulation on account of the 
little which we have done, than of self-condemnation on ac- 
count of the much we have left undone? Where are the 
broken-hearted confessions which should ensue on a thought- 
ful calculation of the souls which have probably perished, and 
the revenue of glory consequently lost to the name of God, 
through our want of fidelity to our trust? Where is the dis- 
position which might be looked for, to ascertain our guilty 
omissions, and most crying wants, and to take them into the 
presence of God, and cast ourselves at his feet in order to our 
forgiveness and improvement ? 

And yet, until these questions can be answered satisfac- 
torily, we have no ground to expect the growing success we 
profess to desire. The law of the divine economy on this 
subject is, " He that humbleth himself shall be exalted, and 
he that exalteth himself shall be humbled." God will not 
trust those with success who are likely to appropriate the 
glory to themselves. One of the principles by which he reg- 
ulates this part of his conduct is, to proportion the usefulness 
and prosperity of his people according as they are able to 
bear it. The measure of our present success, then, is to be 
regarded as the measure of our present humility ; so that, if 
we would not stop at the point of usefulness to which we 
have attained, nor be prepared for a higher degree by a course 



IN RELATION TO MISSIONS. 311 

of painful providential discipline, we must humble ourselves 
under the mighty hand of God. Eminent devotedness to God 
will recognize and rejoice in this as a primary duty, while 
the sincere performance of the duty cannot fail to promote 
eminent devotedness to God. 

2. The next requisite for the church in its missionary 
capacity which we venture to specify is, the due appreciation 
of the spiritual nature of the work in which we are engaged. 
Independently of the danger on this subject to which we are 
naturally and always liable, the present day has dangers pe- 
culiar to itself. Our claims, as the benefactors of mankind, 
are not, as formerly, passed by in contempt, or summarily 
dismissed by the world as mischievous or chimerical ; but 
hence the danger of lowering our tone as the servants of the 
Most High God, and of aiming to make out a case for its 
commendation which will compromise our character for fidel- 
ity to him. Our claims are not only canvassed by the world 
generally, but partially patronized by the great ; but let us 
remember that, if they have not the mind of Christ, that which 
constitutes the true distinction and glory of our object is " far 
above out of their sight," and that what they admire in it are 
merely its outward accidents and adjuncts. Nor do we now 
occupy the field of benevolent activity alone; a philanthropic 
philosophy professes to join us, to aim at the same end with 
ourselves, and to be emulous of excelling us in benefiting 
mankind ; but let us remember that our proper work is 
unique, and that we cannot contest with a worldly philan- 
thropy without coming down from our high vocation, and 
forgetting that our great aim is, not the temporal, civil, or 
social improvement of mankind, but their spiritual recovery 
to God. 

But in order to this, we must sympathize with God. This 
is our only security. And yet how few comparatively do this ! 
How much more frequently do we act from the lowest allow- 
able, rather than from the highest possible, views of Christian 
duty ! How content are we with mere occasional glimpses 
of the loftier order of Christian motives ! as if it were quite 
sufficient to satisfy us if we can thus assure ourselves now 
and then of their existence. How seldom do we stand and 
gaze on our enterprise in the only light in which it is viewed 
from heaven ; as having been revolved from eternity in the 
mind of God ; as asking the universe for a theatre ; involving 
the endless well-being of a race of immortals ; requiring the 



312 THE WANTS OF THE CHURCH 

Prince of Life for a sacrifice ; and all spiritual natures, even 
the Infinite Spirit himself, as its only adequate agency ; and 
the coming eternity for the full development of its issues ! 
How little do we sympathize with God on that particular 
point on which, if on no other, the strongest bond of union 
might be supposed to exist — compassion for depraved, guilty, 
suffering souls ! Who is there that makes the burden of a 
dying world his own? that goes about with " great heaviness 
and continual sorrow of heart," oppressed and borne down 
by the weight of its woes ? Jesus wept over the guilt and 
obduracy of Jerusalem : who is there prepared to mingle their 
tears with his over the guilt and impending destruction of a 
thousand cities wholly given to idolatry ? Enoch and Noah, 
Abraham and Moses, David, and Jeremiah, and Paul, evinced 
the tenderness and depth of their compassion for men by 
tears, entreaties, and unappeasable anguish of soul : who is 
there now that can say, " Rivers of waters run down mine 
eyes, because they keep not thy law " ? Who now is heard 
exclaiming, " O that my head were waters, and mine eyes 
a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the 
slain of the daughter of my people " ? Who now assever- 
ates, " I could wish myself accursed from Christ for my 
brethren " ? 

And yet, until we approach this state of sympathy with 
God on the spiritual and lofty character of Christian missions, 
are we likely to be eminently devoted to their prosecution? 
Will not comparatively trifling acts of service too readily sat- 
isfy our feeble sense of duty? But what could appease the 
anxiety of him who was accustomed to stand in the counsels 
of God, and daily to look around on mankind from the moral 
elevation of the cross, or to view them in the light of the 
judgment fires — what but his total consecration to the work 
of their rescue ? Were this state of mind to become general 
in the church, one of its first effects would be that we should 
think much more highly and honorably than we now do of 
the missionary character and office. Let a ship be perishing 
within sight of an assembled multitude on the shore, and let 
some of these volunteer an attempt to save the sinking crew, — 
with what strained and earnest looks are they followed by 
those who have sent and cheered them off, and how deep and 
panting the desires for their success ! The missionaries of 
the cross, in the case supposed, would carry with them the 
sympathies of the church. Their office would be regarded 



IN RELATION TO MISSIONS. 313 

as the highest and holiest out of heaven. Selecting them, 
as we should, within the view and hearing of the perishing 
millions, how careful should we he, as far as it depended on 

I us, that none but the most compassionate and devoted men 
went forth ! The Saul and the Barnabas of each Christian 

I society would be deemed the most eligible to the office. 
And having despatched them, what holy anxieties would fol- 
low them ! and what earnest intercessions would ascend for 
their success at the footstool of grace ! Hitherto, the Chris- 
tian missionary may be said to have raised instrumentally the 
character of the church ; but never till the church, eminent 

! in its devotedness, imparts its character to the missionary, 
will the sympathy between them be complete ; and in order 
to this, we must appreciate more highly the spiritual nature 
of the work in which we are engaged. 

3. It must be obvious that whatever else may be necessary, 
a vivid and all-pervading apprehension of the missionary con- 
stitution of the Christian church, and of the corresponding 
obligations of each of its members, is of the first importance. 
" But do not the various aggressive efforts recorded in the 
preceding pages show that we have already recovered that 
apprehension 1 " To a very limited extent. Until recently, 
the Christian church was well nigh as local and stationary as 
the Jewish. And is not the clear apprehension of its mis- 
sionary design still confined to a small minority ? Or, if felt 

\ by the many, felt only as a passing impulse, the result of an 
annual appeal, rather than as a personal obligation and a 
universal principle ? Or, if felt as a claim, felt as one which 
may be easily devolved, and discharged by proxy ? 

Now, the constitution of the Christian church supposes that 
every individual member is prepared to take his post as an 
agent for Christ. It does not allow the indolent to fold his 
arms, and transfer his duty to another. It does not permit 
the fashionable professor to wait till Christian labor becomes 
genteel. It does not permit the wealthy to buy off his per- 
sonal services by the bribe of large donations. It requires 

i both — his activity and his donations too. Whether it con- 
tains a man for every post or not, it is certain that it contains 
a post for every man ; and hence the first inquiry which some 
Christian communities make of a newly-admitted member is, 

. " What shall your post be ? " 

Were the writer to be asked to what it was owing, chiefly, 
that the early triumphs of the gospel were arrested — how it 
27 



314 THE WANTS OF THE CHURCH 

was that Christian usefulness died out of the world, and piety 
out of the church — he would suggest that it was to be as- 
cribed principally to that master-device of Satan by which the 
Christian professor was led to suppose that he could do every 
thing by proxy ; that there was an order of men on whom, 
for a certain consideration, he could devolve his duties both 
to God and to man. Now, this, we hardly need remind the 
reader, is substantial Popery. The very essence of that system 
consists in undertaking to exempt its votaries from their per- 
sonal responsibility — in finding a price for every duty, and a 
discharge from every claim of personal accountableness. We 
pride ourselves, indeed, in our Protestantism ; but if this 
representation of Popery be correct, it is high time to inquire 
from how much of that enormous system we have been 
rescued. For just as much of it as still cleaves to us, by just 
so much are we effectually disabled from doing the first 
works, and emulating the first days of the Christian church. 
Now, judging from the past, we should say, that the Reforma- 
tion rescued us from only one half of the evil — from that 
part which blinded men to a sense of their personal concern 
in the affairs of their own salvation. But while the Protes- 
tant wonders at the infatuation of the Papist in imagining 
that any thing can exempt him from the necessity of personal 
diligence in seeking his own salvation, are not we the objects 
of equal wonder in acting so generally as if we thought any 
thing could exempt us from the duty of personal activity in 
seeking the salvation of others ? If the one is essential 
Popery, equally so, in spirit, is the other also. Glorious, 
therefore, as the Reformation was/br the church, in rescuing 
its members from the grasp of a spiritual despotism, and 
making each one feel the necessity of personal faith and per- 
sonal holiness, as glorious will that Reformation be for the 
world which shall complete the work of deliverance, by res- 
cuing them also from the grasp of selfishness, and making 
each one feel his accountability to God for personal activity 
in the work of human salvation. 

But, in order to this, the doctrine of individual Christian 
obligation must be clearly understood, and generally felt. 
Until the Christian sees that it is not rhetorically but most 
strictly true, that he is not his own, he will be often acting as 
if his own will were his only law. Even when he sees theo- 
retically that he is the property of God, unless he remember, 
at the same time, the subduing nature of that price by which 



IN RELATION TO MISSIONS. 315 

he has been bought, he will often act from a stern sense of 
duty, instead of feeling constrained by the power of love, and 
will be tempted to reduce the amount of his service as much 
as he can, without refusing it entirely, instead of presenting 
himself a living sacrifice unto God. 

But even in addition to this, it is necessary that he should 
feel that he is redeemed for a specific end ; an end which 
leaves no moment of his time unclaimed, and no property of 
his nature untaxed. Never, till every Christian feels himself 
as much ordained to diffuse the gospel as the minister is or 
dained to preach it ; never, till every church regards itself as 
a society organized expressly for that diffusion, will its mem- 
bers be aware of its vast capabilities, in the hand of God, foi 
blessing the world ! What but this feeling in the hearts of a 
few has originated all the Christian instrumentality which at 
this moment is at work 1 And if a sense of responsibility for 
personal activity in only a few instances has led to so much, 
what might we not hope, under God, from the individual and 
united activity of the universal church ! 

4. In order to maintain and enlarge our sense of Chris- 
tian obligation, missionary information should be more widely 
circulated, and more seriously pondered. What Christian 
could be insensible either to his own obligations, or to the 
crying wants of the heathen, at the mouth of the pit of per- 
dition? Now, the direct tendency of all the missionary ac- 
counts of heathenism, when rightly considered, is to make us 
feel that around that gulf the idolatrous world is assembled, 
and that, but for the interposing grace of Christ, there should 
we have been mingled with them. We have admitted, in- 
deed, in a previous page, that information from the mission- 
ary field is periodically and increasingly diffused, and that a 
missionary literature for the rising race is in the course of 
rapid formation ; nor can we fail to regard this as tending to 
the end at which we now aim. Our great concern is, that 
Christians generally would lay the moral statistics of the 
heathen world to heart ; that they would not merely read a 
page or an anecdote now and then, but would regularly 
peruse a portion of the accounts transmitted as if endorsed 
by the hand of Providence for them, to be taken into the 
closet and read at the throne of grace. Mere cursory read- 
ing can only produce evanescent impressions. And hence, 
let the members of any Christian congregation, even of of \e 
assembled on a missionary occasion, be taken and examined 



316 THE WANTS OF THE CHURCH 

on the subject of Christian missions — how small the num- 
ber of those who could render an account of even the more 
recent and familiar facts in its history ; and how much 
smaller the number of those who have so far made it a study 
as to have a single question to ask concerning it, or a single 
suggestion to offer for its improvement ! 

And why is it thus ? And how long shall it remain ? Till 
we not merely listen to an occasional appeal on the subject, 
but take it in all its appalling magnitude into our stated and 
devout consideration before God. Till we read the history 
and geography of the heathen nations with a view to it, and 
study it in maps. Till we make it a standing topic of Chris- 
tian conversation ; and, like the primitive saints, repair to 
the missionary assembly with minds, not requiring additional 
excitement, but already filled with intense interest. Till we 
have laid the state of the heathen world upon our naked 
hearts, and vividly pictured its miseries to the eye of our 
mind, as an object at which habitually to gaze. Would the 
Almighty affect his prophet with the spiritual death of the 
Jewish nation? He called him to look on a valley full of dry 
bones. Was the spirit of the apostle, when at Athens, stirred 
within him ? It was when he saio the city wholly given to 
idolatry. Did Jesus weep over Jerusalem? It was when he 
drew near and beheld the city. And if we would be duly 
impressed with the spiritual destitution of mankind, and with 
the consequent urgency of missionary claims, we must look, 
and gaze, and dwell, on the subject. By a well-known law 
of our nature, our eye will soon affect our heart ; and, by a 
gracious law of the divine economy, that compassionate emo- 
tion will be turned into practical effort and missionary 
success. 

5. The preceding considerations suggest the existence of 
another want — a greater depth of personal piety. Fears are 
entertained by many Christians lest religion, in the present 
day, should be made to consist more in imparting than in 
receiving. While they would not have it less abroad for use- 
ful purposes, they question whether it is not too little at home. 
They are apprehensive lest our spiritual expenditure should 
be exceeding our spiritual receipts. The ground of these 
fears may be right or wrong. If they arise from the idea 
that Christian activity and the growth of personal piety are 
naturally incompatible, so that attention to the one necessa- 
rily involves the proportionate neglect of the other, they are 



IN RELATION TO MISSIONS. 317 

utterly unwarranted. For not only were the most active ser- 
vants of God, as described in Scripture, the most eminent for 
spirituality and devotion, but their very activity formed a part 
of the means by which their spirituality was sustained. If, 
however, those fears arise from the well-known tendency of 
our nature to substitute a morality however ascetic, a ritual 
however irksome, or a philanthropy however costly, in the 
stead of personal piety, and to mistake it for piety, they are 
not unfounded. But whatever the grounds of fear, it cannot 
be denied, and need not be concealed, that the danger appre- 
hended exists — the danger of religion losing in depth what 
it gains in surface. 

Nor do we fear lest, in saying this, we should damp the 
missionary zeal of the church. On the contrary, our aim is 
to render that zeal more scriptural and effective ; for as long 
as it remains a principle of divine appointment that personal 
piety is the proper foundation of relative usefulness, he who 
assists in raising the church nearer to God is enabling it to 
act more beneficially upon the world. Hence the wisdom of 
the inspired Psalmist in praying for the prosperity of the 
church as preparatory to the conversion of the world : " God 
be merciful unto us, and bless us ; and cause his face to shine 
upon us : that thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving 
health among all nations." It is observable that while the 
calling of the apostles is placed, by one evangelist, in imme- 
diate connection with the command that we pray the Lord of 
the harvest for an increase of laborers, # it is described by 
another as immediately following a whole night spent by our 
blessed Lord in prayer to God. f Thus the foundation of mis- 
sionary activity was laid in the very element of prayer. It 
was when the apostles had been day after day " with one 
accord in one place" calling upon God, that they came forth 
to enjoy pentecostal successes, and to reap the field of the 
world. And as long as it is true that spiritual influences, 
like the water, which is their material emblesn, cannot rise 
above their own level, the higher their source, the wider will 
be their diffusion through the various channels of Christian 
activity. While this activity, by the occasions with which it 
will be constantly furnishing us for renewed application to 
God, will be the means of keeping us in habitual communi- 
cation with the Fountain of spiritual life ; so that by action 

* Matt. ix. 38; x. 1. \ Luke vi. 12, 13. 

27* 



318 THE WANTS OF THE CHURCH 

and reaction our piety will give activity to our benevolence, 
and our benevolence invigorate our piety. 

6. Were the preceding requisites supplied, one of the 
first effects apparent would be an increase of holy wisdom — 
wisdom to mark the characteristic features of the age and the 
movements of the world, to appreciate the peculiar position 
of the church in relation to them, and to apprehend and 
obey the indications of God concerning them. The Savior 
may be regarded as saying to his people, but especially to 
his ministers, in every age, " Can you not discern the signs 
of the times? " Each period is preceded and attended with 
its own peculiar signs, and it is a part of their duty to 
mark them, — that to the inquiry of the church, " Watch- 
man, what of the night ? " they might be able to return the 
correct and seasonable reply. Never was there an age when 
the wide field of human misery was so fully explored, and so 
accurately measured, as at present; and consequently there 
never was a time when the obligation of the Christian church 
to bring out all its divine resources and remedies, was so 
pressing and so great ; hence the importance that its minis- 
ters should be prepared to bring forth the strong reasons of 
the gospel for entire self-consecration. Never was there an 
age when science attempted so much and promised so largely 
— challenging the gospel, in effect, to run with it a race of 
philanthropy ; and, consequently, never was there a time 
when it so much concerned the church to vindicate her 
character as the true angel of mercy to the world ; and to do 
this, not by decrying the human expedients which unen- 
lightened man employs, but by surpassing them in the stren- 
uous application of God's remedy. Never was there a time 
when the elements of universal society exhibited so much 
restlessness and change, and when the field of the world was 
so extensively broken up and ready for cultivation ; and, con- 
sequently, never was there a time which so loudly called on 
the Christian sower to go forth and sow ; but as long as 
the laborers are comparatively few, a wise selection of the 
spheres to be occupied is of the first importance. And if 
there never was a time since the days of the apostles when 
the various sections of the church were so aggressive in their 
movements, the obligation is proportionate on each commu- 
nity to mark the operation of the others, not to envy, but 
to learn from their experience, and to emulate their excel- 
lence. 



IN RELATION TO MISSIONS. 319 

To a mind alive to the erection of the kingdom of God 
in the earth, numerous questions of surpassing interest are 
always present. Some of those which engaged the attention 
of the fathers of modern missions, the events of Providence 
have already answered and set at rest. Of those deserving 
consideration at present, we might specify such as these — 
whether or not the claims of the ancient people of God are en- 
gaging a sufficient measure of Christian attention ; whether, 
considering the geographical position of Russia, stretching 
across the whole northern continent of Asia, from the banks 
of the Vistula to the shores of America, as the dominion of 
Britain stretches across the south, and thus having between 
it and us five sixths of the heathen world — something should 
not be attempted towards purifying its church, and render- 
ing it a missionary co-worker with ourselves for their salva- 
tion; what the design of God may be in the remarkable 
distribution of Christian communities — old and corrupt 
though they be — all over the Mahometan empire; whether, 
without diminishing our endeavors for heathendom, more 
ought not to be done for Christendom ; what are the com- 
parative claims of education and preaching in our missionary 
operations ; whether sufficient importance is yet attached to 
the preparation of a native agency in the various parts of 
the missionary field; and whether the time has not come 
when the standard of education for our missionaries might 
be advantageously raised, especially in the department of 
science. These are only a few of a great number of topics 
of growing interest ; most of which are likely, at no distant 
time, to force themselves on our attention in a manner for 
which present consideration, and devout inquiry of God, can 
alone prepare us. 

But if there never was a time when the great missionary 
subject teemed with more interesting inquiries, it is equally 
true, that never was there a land blessed with such peculiar 
facilities, as Britain, for answering those inquiries, and for 
obeying the calls of Providence to give the gospel to the 
world. Why is it that the gospel is at this time in trust with 
a people whose ships cover the seas — who are the merchants 
of the world? Has He who drew the boundaries of Judea 
with his own finger, who selected the precise spot for the 
Temple, who did every thing for the Jewish church with de- 
sign, abandoned the Christian church to accident? And if 
not, — if he has placed the gospel among us with design, 



320 THE WANTS OF THE CHURCH 

what can the nature of that design be, but that it should be 
borne to the world on the wings of every wind that blows? 
Let us ask ourselves why it is that Britain and her religious 
ally, America, should divide the seas, and thus hold the keys 
of the world. Were we but awake to the designs of God, 
and to our own responsibility, we should hear him say, " I 
have put you in possession of the seas ; put the world in pos- 
session of my gospel." And every ship we sent out would 
be a missionary church — like the ark of the deluge, a floating 
temple of God — bearing in its bosom the seeds of a new 
creation. Ours is indeed a post of responsibility and of 
honor ! On us have accumulated all the advantages of the 
past, and on us lies the great stress of the present. The 
world is waiting breathless on our movements ; and every sign 
of Providence finds a voice to urge us on. 

And in saying that a missionary church, to be effective, 
should be thus wise to mark, and quick to avail itself of, every 
providential indication, what are we saying, after all, but 
that God is conducting the affairs of the universe on a plan ; 
that in every age that plan advances ; that his people are to 
mark the signs of that advance, and to fall in with it ; and 
that, in proportion as they adjust their movements to his, link 
themselves on to his plans, and keep pace with his progress, 
they move with the force of Omnipotence simply by moving 
in a line and in harmony with it? O for celestial wisdom 
to place ourselves in harmony with Providence, and to seize 
the crisis which has come for blessing the world ! 

7. One of the first wants which that wisdom, of which we 
have been speaking, would discover, and one of the first 
steps to which it would lead, would be a spirit of greater 
devotedness to the missionary work among ministers at home. 
If a considerable number of those who are now preparing 
for the Christian ministry, and of those who have already 
entered the sacred office, were to devote themselves, as one 
man, to the spiritual rescue of the heathen, who can calcu- 
late the impulse which would be given to the general cause 
of religion ? What exalted piety would it evince ; and what 
an increase of energy and devotion would it tend to call 
forth ! No fear need be entertained for the safety of the 
work at home; the spiritual efficiency of those who would 
find it obligatory to remain at their present post would be 
increased in a far greater ratio than the numerical reduction 
of their ranks; many a youth now devoted to secular pursuits 



IN RELATION TO MISSIONS. 321 

would give himself up to the service of God ; and, more than 
all, the act would discover so high a degree of devotedness 
to God, that he would be able, consistently with his charac- 
ter, to say, in acts of unusual blessing, what he has already 
declared in words of promise, " Them that honor me I will 
honor." 

There is reason to fear that, at present, the number of 
ministers adequately acquainted with the missionary aspect 
of the church, and interested in it, is comparatively small ; 
that the subject is introduced to the attention of the people 
too exclusively at stated times, on annual occasions, and in 
connection with pecuniary collections; and too seldom as 
forming a legitimate topic of ordinary ministerial discourse, 
and to every part of which the heart of the church should 
be supposed to be ever ready to vibrate and respond. And 
yet to this advocacy, partial and feeble though it be, it is 
owing, under God, that the missionary enterprise has risen to 
its present position in the church. What, then, might we not 
hope to see result, were deeds added to words, and personal 
devotements to arguments and professions ! Let them be 
respectfully reminded that, besides their special relation to 
their respective churches, they and their churches sustain 
a universal relation ; that the gospel they preach embraces 
all interests ; that the pulpit they occupy stands, in a sense, 
in the centre of the universe ; that there are lines of relation- 
ship connecting it with every object and event within that 
vast circumference ; that they are placed in that central posi- 
tion to watch and report to their people the progress of 
events, to impress on them the dignity and responsibility of 
their character as the agents of " Him for whom are all things, 
and by whom are all things;" and thus to induce them, as 
their highest honor and happiness, to fall in with that vast 
procession, including all orders and all worlds, which even 
now is moving on to the one appointed spot, where all the dia- 
dems of the universe shall be laid at the feet of Him on 
whose head already are many crowns. " This is a true 
saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a 
good work ; " but let them remember that he who said this, 
regarded a participation in the work of missions as a higher 
distinction still : " Unto me, who am less than the least of 
all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the 
Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ." Let them esti- 
mate the missionary office as highly as he did, and remember 



322 THE WANTS OF THE CHURCH 

how much may depend on their adoption of it; much in the 
church, for while the private Christian is to be an example 
to the world, they are to be " an ensample to the flock " — a 
model among models ; and much in the world ; for their 
central station and official character invest them with influ- 
ence which renders their every movement an object of interest 
to superior beings, and which, in reference to the heathen 
world, may implicate the everlasting welfare of myriads. Only 
let these considerations be devoutly laid to heart, and many a 
minister who now supposes himself bound to remain at home 
would be heard saying, " Here am I ; send me; " others, who 
could not go abroad, would become missionaries at home ; 
while the church generally would find her highest interests 
benefited, as much as by any event which has occurred since 
apostolic days. 

8. Another requisite is Christian union. We have already 
intimated that it is very much owing to the fraternal influence 
shed on the various denominations of Christians by mission- 
ary and kindred operations, that even a vestige of visible 
union remains. And how is it that on particular occasions 
we are induced to quit our denominational camps, and to pro- 
claim the truce of God? By paying greater deference to 
the will of Christ than to the claims of party ; by looking out 
on a world perishing ; by erecting the cross for its salvation, 
and rallying around it; in a word, by reverting practically 
to the primary design of the church. Who has not been 
ready to say at such times, Would that the whole church 
could be converted into a Christian missionary society, and 
meet in that capacity alone ! 

The union wanted is not the union of one day in a year, 
but the union of every day ; not the hollow friendship which 
merely forbears to misrepresent or to injure those who " fol- 
low not with us," but the Christian sympathy which sincerely 
mingles alike in their sorrows and their joys ; not merely a 
oneness of purpose, but, as far as practicable, a union of 
means for the attainment of that purpose. One church 
abounds more, it may be, in the zeal which burns for active 
exertion ; another, in the wisdom which is profitable to direct ; 
and a third, in the funds which are necessary to support the 
holy war. Here, sympathy with each other's wants, by unit- 
ing their respective means, would happily supply them all ; 
while a spirit of division makes that which is already little, still 
less. " One rule of action there is," says a distinguished 



IN RELATION TO MISSIONS. 323 

American missionary, — Abeel, — " which, if observed by all 
sects, would result in the greatest benefit to the church and 
the world. It involves no sacrifice of party interests, and it 
is the only plan which, while Christians remain in distinct 
communities, does not sacrifice the interests of the Redeemer's 
kingdom to mere sectarian aggrandizement. In selecting their 
spheres of action, let each denomination pass by the place 
already occupied, and fix upon those where their services are 
most needed. Let it be a mutual understanding that, if edu- 
cation or predilection dispose the inhabitants of any part of a 
country to a particular sect, all others will yield the ground. 
What endless collision and confusion this would prevent ! 
What desirable consequences it would produce ! If the atten- 
tion of Christians could only be diverted from each other, 
and from the places already occupied, and fixed in deep com- 
passion upon the destitute parts of the world, how soon their 
dying fellow-men in every land would feel the quickening 
influence ! " 

It is in vain to plead the beneficial rivalry of sects. This 
only shows that we are so much accustomed to our divisions, 
that we can see beauty in that which forms our deformity 
and disgrace. But let us see the natural fruits of past divi- 
sions in the fact that Mahometanism, Popery, and Irreligion, 
still divide the civilized world between them ; that reformed 
Christianity finds, on numbering her followers, that she still 
stands in an insignificant minority. And are we to suppose 
that what has hitherto proved the curse of the church is now 
converted into a blessing 1 A spirit of disunion is still dis- 
honoring Christianity in the eyes of the world. By confirm- 
ing the irreligious in their impiety, disheartening the sincere 
inquirer after the truth, and blinding numbers with the idea 
that the sectarian spirit is true piety, it is still ruinous 
to the souls of men; by dividing our limited instrumen- 
tality at home, and tending to counteract our Christian in- 
fluence abroad, and, incomparably more than all, by griev- 
ing the Holy Spirit of God, it is still enfeebling and endan- 
gering our missionary operations, and delaying the conversion 
of the world. It is in vain to say that but little disagreement 
exists as yet among our Christian agents abroad; the seeds 
of discord only ask for time, and they will not fail to bear 
their proper fruit. It is in vain to urge, that good is done 
notwithstanding our disunion; the partial good which is 
effected abroad, is effected by merging the disputes at home 



324 THE WANTS OF THE CHURCH 

— in fact, by uniting — or by pretending to a degree of fra- 
ternity which the relative state of parties at home will not 
justify. And would not a knowledge of our differences there 
be to a great extent fatal to our usefulness ? Would it not 
shake the confidence of the religious novitiate there ; and 
embroil the churches, and cover the breast of the idolater 
with an additional coat of resistance to the arrows of the 
Lord; and arm the Brahmin, the sceptic, and every hostile 
hand with a new weapon of attack ? 

On the other hand, how greatly would the mutual regard 
and sympathetic cooperation of which we speak, tend to 
increase our capacity for missionary usefulness ! By pro- 
moting our own piety and happiness ; for, having ceased 
from the comparative trifles which now vex and engross us, 
we should feel more than ever the force of high and enno- 
bling motives ; breath, now wasted in controversy, would be 
turned into the incense of prayer ; and the only spirit invoked 
in the church would be the Spirit of grace. By the increase 
of sanctified agency which it would set at liberty from the 
present imprisonment of controversy, and send forth into the 
field of the world. By a wise combination of means, so that 
resources which, divided, are not equal to the religious culti- 
vation of a district, would, when united, be equal to an 
attempt on a continent. By affecting the public mind, and 
preparing the world to yield to the claims of the Son of God ; 
for Christian union is not merely a Scripture doctrine ; its 
practical and visible exhibition is evidently intended, accord- 
ing to the prayer of Christ, to be the grand means for the 
conversion of the world, and a leading design of the Chris- 
tian dispensation. Such a union, therefore, as that of which 
we speak, would humbly challenge his blessing, for it would 
be a substantial fulfilment of his prayer. And, then, how 
directly would it increase the capacity of Christians for use- 
fulness, by increasing their capacity for the reception and 
cooperation of that Holy Spirit, who alone can crown their 
activity with success ! 

In order that the slain in the valley of vision might become 
an efficient body, it was necessary, not only that life should 
enter into each separately, — they must fall into order with a 
view to the union and organization of the whole ; and then, 
as an exceeding great army, a skilful commander alone was 
wanting to lead them forth to conquest. The leader of the 
hosts of God is already waiting. Let them be not only com- 



IN RELATION TO MISSIONS. 325 

pact in their several sections, but let those sections be united 
with each other, and as one body he will lead them forth, 
" terrible as an army with banners." Nothing shall be too 
great for them to attempt ; and every conflict shall be a 
victory. 

9. And is not greater pecuniary liberality ivanted? To 
assert, indeed, that it is not already on the increase, would 
only evince insensibility to the obvious facts we ourselves 
have adduced, and ingratitude to the great Head of the 
church. But while the increase of funds which our great 
benevolent institutions have almost annually to announce, 
concurs, with other circumstances, to show that the church 
is not only dissatisfied with its past parsimony, but is grad- 
ually awaking to the claims of Christian liberality, we can 
regard them as little more than indications of improvement. 

Nearly all the great defects in the charity of the Christian 
church remain, with very slight modifications. It still* waits 
for impulses and appeals. It wants calculation, proportion, 
and self-denial. It does not keep pace with the growing de- 
mands of the kingdom of Christ. It wants principle and 
plan. The great current of Christian property is as yet un- 
diverted from its worldly channel. Many of the scanty rills 
of charity, which at present water the garden of the Lord, are 
brought and kept there only by great ingenuity and effort. 
Here and there an individual is to be found who economizes 
his resources that he may employ them for God ; but the 
very admiration in which such a one is held in his circle 
implies that he stands there alone. In which of the sections 
of the Christian church shall we find a spirit of worldly self- 
indulgence to be only the exception, and a spirit of self-deny- 
ing benevolence the rule? How small, it is to be feared, is 
the number of those who really and practically believe that 
" it is more blessed to give than to receive ;" or who truly 
act on the principle, that they hold their property in trust for 
God ! And hence is it not the fact that our very success in 
the cause of God is, in an important sense, found inconve- 
nient and burdensome ? Do we not, consequently, stand dis- 
qualified for extensive usefulness ? Is not the great Head of 
the church himself placed under a moral restraint from em- 
ploying and blessing us only in a very limited degree ? A 
covetous, self-indulgent community ! how can he consistently 
employ such to convert the world ; especially, too, as that 
conversion includes a turning from selfishness? Not, indeed, 
28 



326 THE WANTS OF THE CHURCH 

that his cause is necessarily dependent for success on our 
liberality ; and perhaps, when his people shall be so far con- 
strained by his love as to place their property at his disposal, 
he may most convincingly show them that he has never been 
dependent on it, by completing his kingdom without it. But 
while he chooses to work -by means, those means must be in 
harmony with his own character, and with the character of 
the Christian dispensation ; and what is that character but 
self-denying, infinite benevolence? 

It is recorded, to the high honor of certain ancient believ- 
ers, that " God was not ashamed to be called their God." So 
plainly did they " declare that they sought a better country, 
that is, a heavenly," and so entirely did they live for his glory, 
that he could point the attention of the world to them with 
divine complacency ; he could intrust his character in their 
hands : he could leave the world to infer what he was from 
what they were ; he was content to be judged of by the con- 
duct of his people. Could he leave his character to be in- 
ferred from the conduct of his people now ? Is there any 
thing, for instance, in the manner and extent of their liberality, 
which would remind the world of his vast unbounded benevo- 
lence? They know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that 
though he was rich, for our sakes he became poor, that they 
through his poverty might be made rich ; but from what part 
of their conduct would the world ever learn this melting truth ? 
No; in this respect he is ashamed to be called their God. 
Their self-indulgence misrepresents his self-sacrifice. Their 
worldly spirit of appropriation is a shame to his boundless 
beneficence. His character is falsified by them in the eyes 
of the world. Nor could he honor them in any distinguished 
manner before the world, without indorsing and confirming 
that falsification of his character. He is yearning for the 
happiness of the perishing world ; but such, at present, is 
the nature of his divine arrangements, that he has only the 
instrumentality of his people to work by, and that is so steeped 
in selfishness, that his grace may be said to be held under 
restraint. 

Now, the liberality wanted is that which originates in Chris- 
tian principle. As long as it is subjected to any inferior 
motives, its defects will be numerous, unavoidable, fatal. It 
will think highly of its smallest gifts ; will be unduly influ- 
enced by the conduct of others ; will wait for public excite- 
ment ; and will ever be in danger of diminution, and even 



IN RELATION TO MISSIONS. 327 

of total cessation. Nothing but a deep and abiding con- 
viction of our vast, solemn, subduing obligations to God in 
Christ, can ever insure that cordial and entire consecration 
of our property, which his divine commands, and the neces- 
sities of his cause, imperatively require. By taking the Chris- 
tian to the cross, and keeping him there in the presence of 
the great Sacrifice, he is made to feel that he is not his own, 
that his costliest offering, could he multiply its value a thou- 
sand fold, would be utterly unworthy of divine acceptance ; 
and if called to pour forth his blood as a libation on the altar 
of Christian sacrifice, he would regard it as an ample expla- 
nation of his conduct, to say, with an apostle, " The love of 
Christ constraineth us." 

The liberality wanted is that which provides itself with 
regular resources by acting on a plan. Business plans and 
systematizes in order to gain ; covetousness schemes for selfish 
purposes ; why should the cause of Christian benevolence 
alone be left to the uncertainty of impulses, and to the mercy 
of what the world may chance to' have left ? " Upon the 
first day of the week, let every one of you/' says the apostle, 
" lay by him in store as God hath prospered him, that there 
be no gatherings when I come." Acting in the spirit of this 
direction, we should statedly invite the divine presence, so to 
speak, to audit the accounts of our worldly affairs ; our offer- 
ings would be presented with cheerfulness because coming from 
a fund designed expressly to no other end than charity ; and 
the cause of benevolence, no longer dependent on precarious 
alms, would be welcomed and honored as an authorized claim- 
ant, a divine creditor ; while what we retained for our own use 
would be divinely blessed by the dedication of the rest to God. 

According to the apostolic language just quoted, the liber- 
ality of the Christian should be distinguished not only by 
plan, but also by proportion. In assisting him to determine 
the amount of that proportion, the only step which the gospel 
takes is to point him to the cross of Christ ; and, while his 
eye is fixed there in admiring love, to say, " Ye know the 
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ;" "Freely ye have re- 
ceived, freely give." And can he, after that, experience any 
difficulty in deciding the proportion to be made sacred to 
God ? Surely he would rather exceed than fall short of the 
exact amount. With whom is he stipulating? For whom 
is he preparing the offering? Well may the recollection 
put every selfish thought to flight; tinging his cheek with 



328 THE WANTS OF THE CHURCH 

shame at the bare possibility of ingratitude, and impelling 
him to lay down his all at the feet of Christ. Only let him 
pass near the cross on his way to the altar of oblation, and 
he will not be long lost in the question of proportion ; his 
only subject of anxiety will be that his richest offering should 
be so utterly unworthy. If poor, he will soon detect some 
small superfluity which can be retrenched, or some leisure 
time which can be profitably employed, " working with his 
hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to 
him that needeth." If rich, he will not, cannot be satisfied 
with the gift of money merely, however large the amount ; 
the cause of Christ will have his activity and his sacrifices 
also. Yes, the liberality wanted is that which gives, not a 
little from much, but much from a little ; that which shall in- 
duce the wealthy Christian parent to offer up his pious son 
on the missionary altar, and to lay beside him, at the same 
time, whatever may be necessary to make the oblation com- 
plete; that which shall constrain the wealthy Christian to 
ascend that altar himself, taking with him all he has, and 
offering the whole as a missionary oblation to God. 

In other words, the liberality wanted at the present crisis 
is the liberality of Christian self-denial. And, here, we 
would not be understood to mean that the gospel requires 
that every Christian should, at all times, be found in a state 
of voluntary and comfortless poverty. Were the thousand 
drains of selfishness cut off, the cause of Christ would find 
an abundance from his friends, and would leave an abundance 
to them all. When every Christian brings his all to Christ, 
every Christian will be able to take away with him again an 
ample supply for his most comfortable subsistence. But till 
then, is it not the duty of every one who would be deemed 
benevolent to institute the momentous inquiry which the 
church is now more than ever called on to decide — whether, 
under existing circumstances, there can be any Christian 
benevolence without self-denial. Does not the church itself 
require to be moved by examples of self-denial 1 Do not the 
very terms of Christian discipleship include a readiness to 
lay down life itself, if required, for the sake of the gospel ? 
Is not the teeming population of many a heathen district 
perishing at this moment in ignorance of Christ, because 
Christians will not lay down —not life, but some of its super- 
fluities? And yet, are these Christians living around the 
cross, in sight of the crucifixion, and ever ready to acknowl- 



IN RELATION TO MISSIONS. 3*29 

edge that they are bound, by their obligations to it, to with- 
hold nothing they possess, that has in it the least tendency to 
draw the world to the same centre ! 

Nor can we be supposed to imply, after what we have 
already said, that the Christian cause is originally and neces- 
sarily dependent for success on the property of the church. 
God, however, has been pleased to employ the instrumentality 
of his people for the conversion of the world ; the value of 
that instrumentality depends entirely on its moral character ; 
and that character, to be acceptable to God, must be perfectly 
congenial with his own character. Now, it is worthy of at- 
tentive regard that, while he has thus made the duty of giving 
imperative, he has taken away all pretext for supposing that 
it is necessary on any other account than as an exhibition of 
Christian principle, by making its usefulness to depend, not 
on the amount given, but on the spirit and entireness of the 
gift, so that, were the amount of our contributions, on the 
one hand, to be multiplied from thousands to millions, that 
alone would not entitle us to look for an increase of useful- 
ness. Success is not to be purchased. That no increase of 
good would arise from such multiplication we dare not affirm ; 
for we know not the plenitude of sovereign grace. But that 
no promise in the Bible would entitle us to look for it, we do 
affirm. Success is there promised, not to acts, but to the 
Christian principles whence those acts should flow. And 
hence, on the other hand, were our contributions a thousand 
times less than they are, that alone would not warrant us to 
apprehend a decrease of usefulness. The question would 
still return, What is the character of our liberality? Does 
it partake of the unworldly and self-denying character of the 
cross? We ask not the amount of what the church has 
given, but how much it has kept back for mere self-indul- 
gence. We ask not how many agents of mercy have been 
sent forth, but also how many more might, and therefore 
ought to, have been sent forth ; but which through our selfish- 
ness have been kept unemployed. What we have left un- 
done, owing to our worldliness, has an influence as positive as 
that which we have done ; and the only influence which it 
can have is to weaken the effect of our actual efforts. In the 
eyes of the world it convicts us of gross inconsistency, and 
thus directly tends to neutralize the influence which belongs 
to Christian character. And, in relation to God, it suspends 
the shower of his blessing, and allows us only a few prelu- 
28* 



330 THE WANTS OF THE CHURCH 

sive drops ; for how could he distinguish with his copious 
blessing a liberality which puts off his cause with merely a 
few of the drops of its superfluity, without exposing his own 
glorious character to the suspicion of inconsistency 1 

The liberality wanted, then, is not that empty benevolence 
which makes no retrenchments, takes no pains, costs neither 
effort nor sacrifice ; but that which, actuated by the love of 
Christ, plans, proportions, and adds to its superfluities the 
precious savings of self-denial. And the principal ground 
on which we urge it is, that it is the only liberality congenial 
with the character of Christ, and therefore the only liberality 
which he can consistently honor, to any great extent, with his 
blessing. Till this comes, the great shower of his blessing will 
not come. But when it does, what can stand before a spirit 
which evinces a readiness to give up all for Christ; for 
the Spirit without measure will come with it. The world 
will behold in such conduct an argument for the reality and 
power of the gospel which it could not misunderstand, could 
not gainsay. " God, even our own God, shall bless us," shall 
glory to own such a people before the eyes of the world — 
" God shall bless us," and, as a consequence, " all the ends 
of the earth shall fear him." 

]0. The Christian principle which originates the liberality 
wanted would not stop here, but would proceed to supply 
another important want — the Christian agency of mission- 
ary laymen. No reason, except our defective devotedness to 
Christ, can be assigned, why the wealthy Christian should so 
generally confine his missionary instrumentality to the mere 
act of giving money ; why he should not himself accompany 
the missionary preacher ; why he should not select for his 
residence some unenlightened region, and take with him " a 
man of God" to be the ministerial instructor of his own 
family, and the missionary of the district around ; why the 
Christian female, whom God has prepared for missionary 
usefulness, should not emulate " those women who labored 
in the gospel " in apostolic days ; or why the colonization of 
heathen districts should not be attempted by the settlement 
of Christian societies. 

It cannot be alleged, in excuse, that there are no persons 
eligible for such a duty. There is many a Christian at 
this moment who possesses an affluent proportion of in- 
dependent property ; who has no indissoluble ties which 
bind him to his native land ; who can occasionally leave that 






IN RELATION TO MISSIONS. 331 

land for a continental excursion ; who is often at a loss for 
occupation ; and who consequently spends much of his time in 
a way which absolutely endangers his piety. It cannot be said 
that there are no places eligible in heathen lands for such to 
reside in. There are many situations in the British colonies 
and dependencies, at least, where they would find salubrity, 
security, and as many of the comforts of life as those can 
consistently desire to possess who profess to be the followers 
of Him who had not where to lay his head, and whose treas- 
ure is in heaven. Nor can it be alleged, that the preaching 
of the gospel is the only instrumentality required for the 
heathen ; or that the effect of the addition of lay agency 
would be experimental and uncertain. " I have scarcely 
been in a foreign port," says the American missionary already 
quoted, the Rev. D. Abeel, " where I have not met with men 
from Christian lands engaged in business. These persons 
are found wherever they can reap advantage from their 
worldly professions. After remaining some time in a place, 
they not only feel themselves at home, but are regarded, by 
those around them, as naturalized citizens. They gain the 
confidence of the natives, and become influential. They are 
looked up to with respect, and their opinions are sought for 
with avidity. I have been in countries where these persons 
had become so popular, as to receive from royalty itself marks 
of honorable distinction. Now, the missionaries have often 
inquired why Christian merchants and mechanics might not 
pursue the same course of life from the motive of glorifying 
their Redeemer and benefiting their fellow-men. They 
could certainly engage in the same employments; they might 
probably secure the same confidence ; and, at the same time, 
they could make all their relations and honors subservient to 
the progress of Christianity. I have known a few persons in 
heathen countries who acted on high religious principles, and 
it is impossible to tell how much good they accomplished. 
It is not only their personal exertions which render them 
useful, but the countenance and assistance they lend the mis- 
sionaries. It is in this last-mentioned respect, that their 
presence and influence are exceedingly desirable. Being on 
the spot, and acquainted with every event which occurs, they 
not only become greatly interested in the salvation of the 
heathen, but are prepared to improve every opportunity for 
its promotion. For my own part, I cannot doubt that Chris- 
tian communities among the heathen would produce the most 



332 THE WANTS OF THE CHURCH 

desirable effects. " Such a community, by necessarily em- 
ploying a number of natives, would be placing them in the 
best situation for the reception of Christian instruction ; by 
merely relieving the missionary from secular cares, they 
would be setting at liberty a considerable proportion of his 
time and powers for spiritual duties ; by Christian tuition, 
visiting, conversation, and the distribution of religious books, 
they would greatly multiply his means of usefulness ; and by 
imbodying and exhibiting before the heathen, as a Christian 
church, the benign and elevating influence of the gospel, 
they would be constraining observers to glorify their Father 
who is in heaven. 

The same excellent missionary bears testimony to the 
invaluable influence of Christian female teachers in heathen 
lands. But to form an idea of their usefulness, he observes, 
" it is necessary to be a witness to their habitual engage- 
ments ; " and expresses it as his opinion, formed from exten- 
sive intercourse with missionaries, that woman is as indispen- 
sable to the successful operation of missions, as she is to the 
well-being of society in Christian lands. 

Now, let the wealthy Christian bear in mind that by going 
and personally cooperating with the Christian missionary, 
the cause of Christ among the heathen might receive not 
merely the advantage of his own time, and wealth, and influ- 
ence, — he might be honored of God in filling a wide sphere 
with the agency of Christian women also, and might, in 
various ways, eminently promote the interests of Christian 
colonization. 

No good or useful act terminates in itself; and his exam- 
ple could not fail, by the divine blessing, " to provoke very 
many." Why, then, should he decline this proof of his de- 
votedness to Christ ? It cannot be because it is impractica- 
ble ; for the Christian missionary has gone before him, and 
is calling him to follow. He would not plead that it is be- 
cause he has wealth, for that increases his responsibility ; so 
that, instead of acting as a golden chain to bind him here, it 
should be rather converted into wings to bear him " far hence 
among the Gentiles." Had he never possessed that wealth, 
he himself might possibly have been a laborious missionary ; 
and surely he does not imagine that his wealth was meant to 
diminish his usefulness by detaining him in self-enjoyment at 
home. He cannot plead that the state of the heathen does 
not require it; for let him know that if he will " retire to 



IN RELATION TO MISSIONS. 333 

enjoy life," he retires amidst the cries and shrieks of a world 
perishing in its guilt. He will not say that iiis obligations to 
Christ do not demand it; for he daily acknowledges they 
might at any time justly require the sacrifice of life itself. 
Nor can he urge that it is not necessary, in order to demon- 
strate his devotedness to Christ ; for the question is, whether 
his disinclination to take this step does not arise from his 
very want of devotedness ! The sum which he contributes 
may be only serving to conceal his want of zeal for the active 
service of Christ ; so that his personal consecration to Christ 
as a missionary layman may be just the very kind of evidence 
yet wanting, and indispensably necessary to establish the fact 
of his love to Christ. 

11. Now, from the wants already named, it is evident that, 
as a missionary church, we preeminently need an increase of 
energy and zeal. He must be ignorant indeed who does not 
know that rashness often passes for zeal, and that the path 
of wisdom lies between a blind impetuosity on the one hand, 
and a cold, calculating policy en the other. But blind must 
he be also not to perceive that much in the Christian church, 
at present, which assumes the name of prudence, is timidity 
and unbelief in disguise. In reference to its financial affairs, 
for instance, were all the maxims of worldly caution to be 
adduced in connection with all the promises of God addressed 
to a generous, enterprising, and open-handed faith, how much 
easier it would be to harmonize them with those maxims than 
with these promises ! The spirit of commercial enterprise, 
the ardor of scientific pursuit, or the heroism of adventurous 
research, takes men annually by hundreds into the regions 
of pestilence, or storm, or eternal ice; but no sooner does a 
Christian minister leave home for a foreign field of labor, 
than, as if a miracle of self-sacrifice had taken place, a claim 
is set up in his behalf for the universal sympathy of the church 
Judging from the history of the church, we have every thing 
to hope from bold measures ; but judging from our own con- 
duct, we have everything to fear from them. " Prove me 
now," saith God, " whether I will not open the windows of 
heaven to bless you ; '■' but who thinks of accepting the gra- 
cious challenge ? Does not our conduct, in effect, reproach 
the first missionaries, and charge the confessors and reform 
ers of later days with guilty rashness? If we are only pru- 
dent, what were they ? And yet we profess to admire their 
deeds ; boast of being their spiritual descendants ; and ac- 



334 THE WANTS OF THE CHUECH 

knowledge that we owe every thing, under God, to their bold 
ness, fidelity, and zeal. Does not the conduct of the great 
majority of Christians at home reproach even the laborers 
who are at present in the missionary field ? For if those are 
right, must not these be wrong ? If the reasons which those 
assign in justification of their course are to be held decisive, 
then have these laid themselves open to the charge of rash 
and inconsiderate zeal. 

And yet who does not feel that theirs is the zeal we want ? 
the zeal of a Paul and the first disciples ; of a Luther and the 
early reformers ; of an Eliot and our first missionaries ; a 
zeal which would startle the church, and even be stigmatized 
by thousands of its members — for what zeal has not been ? 
zeal that would be content to be appreciated by the Chris- 
tians of another generation. The zeal wanted is that which, 
while it invites prudence to be of its council, would not allow 
her to reign ; and which, while it would economize its means 
and provide for real evils, would gather incitement to in- 
creased activity from the obstacles lying in its way — the 
zeal of our momentary but strongest impulses made perpetual. 
The energy we want is that which springs from sympathy 
with the grandeur of our theme, the dignity of our office, and 
the magnificence of the missionary enterprise. O, where is 
the spiritual perception that looks forth on the world as the 
great scene of a moral conflict, and beholds it under the 
stirring aspect which it presents to the beings of other worlds ? 
Where are the kindled eye, and the beaming countenance, 
and the heart bursting with the momentous import of the 
gospel message? Where the fearlessness and confidence 
whose very tones inspire conviction, and carry with them all 
the force of certainty and the weight of an oath ? Where 
the zeal which burns with its subject, as if it had just come 
from witnessing the crucifixion, and feels its theme with all 
the freshness and force of a new revelation ? The zeal which, 
during its intervals of labor, repairs to the mount of vision to 
see the funeral procession of six hundred millions of souls? 
to the mouth of perdition, to hear voices of all these, saying, 
as the voice of one man, " Send to our brethren, lest they 
also come into this place of torment" ? to Calvary, to renew 
its vigor by touching the cross? Enthusiasm is sobriety here. 
In this cause, the zeal of Christ consumed him ; his holiest 
ministers have become flames of fire ; and, as if all created 
ardor were insufficient, here infinite zeal finds scope to burn ; 

for the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall perform it." 



IN RELATION TO MISSIONS. 335 

12. And where is this flame to be kindled — where is the 
live coal to be obtained, but from off the altar? It was there 
that the servants of God in every age found it, and there they 
kept it bright and burning. It was there that Christ himself 
sustained that zeal, in the flames of which he at last ascended 
as a sacrifice to God. And it is only in proportion as we are 
found at the same altar of devotion, that we can hope to im- 
bibe his spirit, or to enjoy the honor of advancing his cause. 

But it may be asked, Has not a spirit of supplication, of 
late years, distinguished the churches of Christ? Notwith- 
standing what we have said of a congratulatory nature on 
missionary meetings for prayer, in a preceding page, we feel 
bound to reply, only very partially — whereas the prayer 
wanted is universal ; only very feebly — whereas the prayer 
wanted is the effectual, fervent prayer, which availeth much; 
only by uncertain fits — whereas the prayer needed is the 
continuous, unbroken, persevering cry of importunity ; only 
the prayer of party, (effects prove it) — whereas the prayer 
required is the prayer of " all, with one accord." 

Prayer, indeed, is always indispensable. It brings us to 
the one spot, and keeps us in the only place in the universe 
which properly belongs to us — at the feet of God. It tends 
to annihilate self; amounts to a confession of our utter de- 
pendence upon God ; renders appropriate homage to his 
greatness ; and thus keeps us in constant and active commu- 
nication with the Fountain of grace. 

There are times, however, when the duty of prayer be- 
comes unusually urgent. If, for instance, a period should 
arrive in which the philosophy and the philanthropy of this 
world should profess to be aiming at human happiness, in 
common with the gospel, and should consequently appear to 
be almost identified with it, how important that the church 
should affirm the essential difference between these agencies 
— the one expecting the renovation of society from human 
means alone, the other relying supremely on the power of 
God as indispensable to success ! But how can Christians 
visibly and directly vindicate the divine honor in this respect, 
except as they are known to be in the habit of appealing to 
that power, and importunately invoking the divine interposi- 
tion ? Now, such a period is the present. The world is 
teeming with projects for the amelioration of the race, and is 
full of expectation from the future. But though it is thus 
looking, at length, in the same direction as the church, far 



336 THE WANTS OF THE CHURCH 

different are the specific objects at which they aim, and the 
principal means they employ. " Our hope is in God." But 
this we can make apparent only by evincing our dependence 
on him in prayer. We are to show that in this vital respect 
we are at issue with a skeptical philosophy at the very out- 
set ; that while prayer is the last instrument which the world 
would employ, we not only employ, but rely on it ; and that 
we place it, in the order of means, as first and best. It is in 
this way alone that we can practically rebuke the pride of 
man ; proclaim the utter insufficiency of mere human means 
to renovate the world ; and claim for God the glory due unto 
his name. 

If, again, a period should come in which the church should 
be quickened into general activity for the good of the world, 
the only way in which the great mass of the partially enlight- 
ened could be preserved from the danger of relying unduly on 
that activity would be by their being kept in the posture of 
humble acknowledgment and earnest prayer. Now, such a 
season of growing activity has arrived ; and such a danger 
has doubtless come with it ; and the more that activity in- 
creases, the greater our liability to rest in it, to the guilty 
exclusion of Him who alone can render it useful. This, in- 
deed, does not imply that we are to do less, but to pray more. 
The greater the sacrifice laid on the altar, the stronger the 
flame necessary to consume it. We are to remember that 
He whom we serve is jealous for his honor ; that he regards 
every power in the universe as more or less opposed to him, 
but the power of prayer, and the means which prayer has 
sanctified ; that he views it as an attempt to do without him ; 
as a hostile endeavor to contravene the great principle of the 
gospel of Christ — " that not by might, nor by power, but by 
his Spirit alone/' the maladies of the world shall be healed. 
If we look into the censer of the " angel standing at the 
golden altar which is before the throne," and if we there 
mark what it is of all human instrumentality which ascends 
to heaven, we shall find that it is only that which is sanctified 
by prayer. When the clamors of a prayerless zeal have sub- 
sided ; and the undevout deeds which have dazzled and 
astounded men have spent their force, let us mark what is 
left in the censer — only that which partook of the nature of 
prayer. This is all that lives to reach the skies ; all that 
heaven receives from earth ; all that is ever permitted to as- 
cend before God, And when the history of the world fhall 



IN RELATION TO MISSIONS. 337 

finally be summed up, nothing which had not been in that 
censer will be named except to be condemned. Preaching 
itself — benevolent activity in all its forms — except so far 
as it is associated with devotion — will be passed over to record 
the triumphs of prayer. Many a Christian, who once filled 
the public eye with his active deeds and burning zeal, will 
be comparatively unnoticed; and the man of prayer — the 
wrestler with God — will be drawn out from his closet obscu- 
rity and proclaimed in his stead ; and it will then appear that 
while the one was only moving earth, the other was moving 
heaven. 

If the activity of the period referred to aimed supremely 
at spiritual results, the necessity for prayer would be still 
further increased ; for it is expressly in order to the produc- 
tion of such results that the agency of the Holy Spirit has 
been appointed and promised ; and it is only in proportion 
as we implore his presence and influence that we honor that 
appointment, or can obtain the fulfilment of that promise. 
But such is the special aim of all the Christian activity of the 
present period. Without despising or overlooking any of the 
real interests of humanity, the great and ultimate object of 
our endeavors is purely spiritual — the regeneration of the 
world. Here, then, we are brought into the special province 
of the Spirit — a region in which our only robe should be hu- 
mility, our only posture that of dependence, our only lan- 
guage prayer. Here, as the great missionary Spirit, he looks 
on all the ordinances of the church as the instruments with 
which he works, and on all its members as the organs through 
whom he speaks, and on the entire dispensation as emphati- 
cally his own. Now, how can we place ourselves in harmony 
with such an arrangement, without earnest, united, persever- 
ing supplication for his gracious influence ? 

The first prayer of Christ himself on his ascension to 
heaven was for the effusion of the Spirit ; and the first prayer 
of the church should be for the same blessing. Why is it — 
let there be great searchings of heart — why is it that the 
promised impartation of the Spirit is withheld? Why is it 
that we enjoy only a few drops of that mighty influence, of 
which, at this moment, the heavens are full ? Only one ex- 
planation can be given : " We have not, because we ask not; 
or because we ask amiss." Individual Christians have not, 
particular churches have not, the church collectively has not 
duly felt its need of that influence, nor sent up the prayer 
29 



338 THE WANTS OF THE CHURCH 

which is equal to bring it down. If, then, we would not 
grieve the Holy Spirit of God ; if we would do homage to the 
office which he holds in the plan of the world's redemption ; 
if we would do honor to the mediation of Christ on account 
of which his gracious influences are imparted — in all our 
entreaties for the conversion of the world, our loudest suppli- 
cations must ascend for the advent of the Holy Spirit. 

Besides, it is only as our endeavors for the salvation of 
the world are accompanied by prayer, that we are acting in 
harmony with the pervading spirit of the gospel constitution. 
According to that spirit, every thing is made dependent on 
prayer, and may be effected by it. What is the sacrifice of 
Christ himself, in practical effect, but prayer in its most con- 
centrated, intense, and prevailing form — the prayer of blood ; 
a prayer so ardent that he consumed himself in the utter- 
ance ; a prayer which is ascending still, and still filling the 
ear of God with its entreaties ; a prayer from which all other 
prayers derive their prevailing power 1 Hence it is said, 
" He is able to save unto the uttermost all them that come 
unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession 
for them." He has turned the merit of his sacrifice into 
prayer. Intercession, in his hands, is a chain fastened to the 
throne of God — the support and stay of a sinking world. 
Yes, even Jesus prays, and by prayer succeeds. If he would 
have the heathen to be his for an inheritance, he is directed 
to ask to that effect. And accordingly he does ask : " For 
Zion's sake," saith he, " I will not hold my peace ; and for 
Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness 
thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a 
lamp that burneth." And shall he pray for this object alone 1 
He summons his church to join him : " Ye that make men- 
tion of the Lord," saith he, " keep not silence, and give him 
no rest." He places them at his side by the altar ; puts 
into their hand a censer filled with incense like his own ; 
and thus seeks to multiply the voice and effect of his own 
intercession. 

Wise and gracious arrangement ! For owing to this it is 
that every believer — even the poorest and the obscurest — is 
afforded an opportunity of indulging his supreme love to 
Christ by aiding the advancement of his kingdom. Let him 
not waste his moments in fruitlessly deploring how truly small 
the largest gifts which he can lay on the altar of Christ; how 
little the time which he can give to his service ; or how cir- 



IN RELATION TO MISSIONS. 339 

cumscribed the influence which his lowness of station permits 
him to exert for his glory. The throne of grace is open — 
open to him — open to all. " Here/' he may say, " here I can 
gratify my love to Christ, and give a loose to all the ardor of 
my soul. Poor I may be in the world's account ; but here I 
can pour out at his feet the wealth of my affections. Busy I 
may be in the service of man ; but here I can repair, in 
thought and desire, and serve him continually. And let my 
influence with man be as limited as it may, here I can come 
and have power with God. While others are engaged in 
pleading for the cause of Christ with men, here I can come 
and plead for it with God ; here I can vie with an apostle. 
While a Paul is planting, and an Apollos watering, here I can 
aid them both by bringing down the increase. 5 ' 

If, indeed, the salvation of the world be our aim, whatever 
may be instrumentally necessary to that salvation should be 
made the subject of prayer. Especially should the spiritual 
prosperity of the Christian church excite our earnest desire. 
Is it inquired, What should be the special object of supplica- 
tion for the church 1 It wants more spirituality and dis 
tinctness from the world ; it wants a higher appreciation of 
its office as the instrument of Christ for saving the world ; 
more of the spirit of liberality to sacrifice for Christ ; of union 
in accordance with the prayer of Christ; of zeal which shall 
burn for the universal triumphs of Christ. But one want 
there is which comprehends the whole, — the impartation of 
the Spirit of Christ. Could a convocation be held of all the 
churches upon earth, the object of their one united cry should 
be for that promised Spirit. Let that be secured, and in 
obtaining that we shall obtain the supply of every other want : 
we should find that we had acquired the same mind which 
was also in Christ ; a benevolence which would yearn over 
the whole human race ; a brotherly love which would com- 
bine with the whole body of Christians for the recovery of 
the world ; a zeal which would be ever devising fresh meth- 
ods of usefulness, practising self-denial, and laying itself out 
in the service of Christ ; and a perseverance which would 
never rest till the whole family of man should be seated 
together at the banquet of salvation. 

But if, by thus imploring an effusion of the Spirit on the 
church, we are, in effect, interceding for the world, since it 
is through the instrumentality of the church that the world is 
to be converted to Christ, how important that we should real- 



340 THE WANTS OF THE CHURCH 

ize in thought the dignity and responsibility of our office! 
We go to God as the earthly representatives of mankind. 
We pass to the throne of grace through multitudes, myriads 
of human beings. May we not hear them, as we go, implor- 
ing a place in our supplications ? May we not see all Africa 
assembled in our path, urging us to go to God for them, to 
describe their wrongs, to ask for the blessings of the reign 
of Christ for them? And before we have done pleading for 
Africa, China comes with its untold myriads, entreating us 
to intercede for them. And while yet we are pleading for 
China, India comes with its tale of lamentation and woe, and 
entreats us to speak for it : and can we refrain ? And when 
we grow faint, they all combine their entreaties that we cry 
to God for them louder still ; that we call in help — more 
intercessors, and more still, — till all the church be prostrate 
in prayer. And when we move to quit the throne of grace, 
they all, in effect, entreat us not to leave them unrepresented 
before God. " If there be a God," they say, " and if prayer 
can reach him, do not leave us thus, or we perish. Our only 
hope is in the God you worship ; the Savior you proclaim. 
Pray that the blessings of his grace may be extended to 
us." Did we habitually realize our office thus, our prayers 
would rise to a degree of importunity to which nothing could 
be denied essential to the success of our missionary endeavors. 

And be it remarked, that prayer is not only desirable, ob- 
ligatory, urgent, — the time has come when, in an unusual 
sense, it is inevitable. We read of the church of old being 
shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. 
The church at present is shut up unto prayer. It must sub- 
mit to deep disgrace in heathen lands, or call down unusual 
measures of help from heaven. It is so completely insnared 
by success, that it must sound a retreat, or betake itself to 
God in unwonted prayer. Happy necessity, which shall drive 
it to this resource ! Blessed exigence, which shall bring the 
whole church on its knees before God ! The time to favor 
her, yea, the set time will then have come. " God, even our 
own God, will bless us." Gazing from his throne upon his 
church suppliant at his feet, he will say, " Behold, she pray- 
eth ; let the windows of heaven be opened, and the blessing 
be poured out." 

Again, then, we return to the position with which we com- 
menced this part of our subject, — and our survey of the 
necessities of the church has only deepened our conviction 



IN RELATION TO MISSIONS. 341 

of its truth, — that its great practical want as a missionary 
church is a spirit of entire devotedness to its office. He who 
knows any thing of the human mind, knows that its full 
energies are never put forth unless its object be single. He 
who knows any thing of the relative design of the Christian 
church, knows that it deserves the undivided attention and 
entire consecration of the whole Christian. And he who 
knows any thing of the history of that church, is aware that 
those who have effected the greatest good in their own age, 
and who are producing the greatest impression on posterity, 
were distinguished for the entireness with which they gave 
themselves up to the service of Christ. Not that they occu- 
pied a public sphere, perhaps, nor that they were distin- 
guished by any one peculiar mode of doing good ; but, what- 
ever their station, and however diversified their Christian 
activity, they could each say, like the apostle, though in 
another sense, " One thing I do." One all-pervading passion, 
one all-controlling purpose, bound their various and versatile 
efforts together, causing the whole to result, like the intricate 
motions of a complicated machine, in one entire effect. 
Their talents which, without this spirit of devotedness, would 
have been comparatively wasted, or have ranked as insignifi- 
cant, by it acquired a concentration and a power which 
arrested attention, and moved society. Feeble rays of knowl- 
edge which, without this, would have been useless to all but 
the possessors themselves, by it were collected into a focus, 
and made to illuminate and burn. Powers of persuasion and 
reasoning, which, without it, would seldom have moved or 
convinced, by it acquired an impassioned earnestness which 
would be heard, and could not fail to be felt. Each appeal 
which they made for God, however simple the terms in which 
it was couched, was charged high with feeling and fervor ; 
each sentence an arrow with barbed and sharpened point; 
each attempt to reason for God, " logic set on fire." Oppor- 
tunities of usefulness which, without it, would have passed 
by them unseen and neglected, were, by it, anticipated, 
waited for, met, seized, improved, multiplied. Characters 
which, without it, would have been unnoticed, by it acquired 
an air of originality and greatness, and even obtained a wide- 
spread ascendency over other characters. 

There are men now occupied in the field of missionary labor 
whose names, but for this, would never have been heard of 
beyond their own immediate circle ; but whose praise is now 
29* 



342 THE WANTS OF THE CHURCH 

in all the churches, and will be to the end of time. Not 
a man of this kind ever lives without leaving on society 
permanent traces that he has been among them. And why 1 
Partly for this reason ; that the undivided and devoted man 
of God will be ever and anon impelled, by the very law of 
his devotedness, to advance a step, at least, beyond his con- 
temporaries ; to carry out into vigorous action some principle 
which they are content to retain slumbering in their creeds ; 
to give himself up to the power of his principles. True, by 
so doing he may often attempt more than he can effect ; but 
what then ? he will effect more than most men attempt. 

And is not the devoted Christian the only one likely to 
develop and draw out into benevolent activity the resources 
of those around him, and of the church in general ? No one 
else will feel sufficiently concerned to attempt it ; or if he 
did, the attempt, counteracted as it would be by his own ex- 
ample, would prove nugatory on others, and recoil with shame 
on his own head. But the Christian whose heart is wholly 
devoted to Christ, cannot see the paucity of his own means 
in contrast with the magnitude of the work to be performed, 
and then look around on the unemployed and ample resources 
of the church, all of which are due to the service of Christ, 
but nearly the whole of which are lying open to the incur- 
sions of the world, without attempting to reclaim them for 
Christ. He cannot recollect that each member of that vast 
body of the faithful has his post assigned in the cause of 
human salvation : that in that post all his Christian influence 
should be put into constant requisition ; and that every thing 
dear to God is suspended and suffering, owing to the general 
neglect of this truth, without feeling impelled to warn his 
fellow-Christians. He believes, and therefore speaks ; while 
his example, louder than words, reminds them that they are 
not their own ; that they are exclusively the property of 
Christ. 

And is not the Christian whose devotedness is such that 
he cannot be satisfied with giving himself less than wholly to 
the service of Christ, and who would fain see all the re- 
sources of the Christian church pressed into the same service, 
and all its members cooperating with him to the utmost, — is 
not he, for the very same reasons, likely to be the most earnest 
in his entreaties for the indispensable influences of the Holy 
Spirit? Yes; whatever else may be essential in order to the 
conversion of the world, he will insist first and last on the 



IN RELATION TO MISSIONS. 343 

agency of the Holy Spirit. Remembering that the present 
is emphatically the dispensation of the Spirit, that to convince 
men of sin is the office of the Spirit, that the ordinances of 
the church are the instruments of the Spirit, and that every 
Christian member is at once the mouth of the church and 
the organ of the Spirit, in their united appeals to the world, — 
he feels as if he could not move without the Spirit; but 
remembering, also, that his influence is promised to prayer, 
he cannot do less than cry earnestly for his aid. Thus 
earnestly sought, and appropriately honored, the presence of 
the Spirit will be felt, nourishing and enlarging his piety into 
an element ; not affecting a part of his character merely, but 
pervading the whole ; consecrating his knowledge, and turning 
it into heavenly wisdom ; keeping him on his watch-tower, 
looking out for the signs of the times, and the means of im- 
proving them to the glory of God ; inspiring him with a 
growing confidence in God, in the sufficiency of the gospel 
to meet the wants of the church and of the world ; concen- 
trating his powers to the one great object of human salva- 
tion ; impelling him, under a sense of the magnitude of the 
work to be accomplished, to excite and engage the agencies 
of all around him ; and yet deepening his conviction that, 
could all these agencies be put into full activity, the power 
of the Spirit alone could crown that activity with success. 
As certainly as he believes this he will pray ; as certainly as 
he prays he will obtain the Holy Spirit ; and as certainly as 
he is actuated by the Spirit of God, his will be a devoted and 
efficient instrumentality. 

Now, such entireness of consecration is, not among other 
things, but above all other things, in the order of means, 
indispensable. Always obligatory, it has now more than ever 
assumed a character of pressing, crying urgency. The spirit- 
ual wants of the heathen become apparent faster than we can 
supply them. Cries for missionary help thicken around us 
more rapidly than we can meet and appease them. The 
church is distracted by the multiplicity of demands made on 
it, compared with the scantiness of means at present at its 
disposal. Entire devotedness would remedy the evil ; not so 
much by adding to those resources the thousand means of 
influence which are now wasted in the world, as by certainly 
securing an unmeasured blessing from on high. God would 
arise out of his place ; and then, although our means were 
much scantier than they now are, the work would rapidly 
proceed to a glorious consummation. 



344 THE WANTS OF THE CHURCH 

Christians, then, must live to Christ for the conversion of 
the world. The individual believer must come to feel that 
his very business, as a Christian, his calling, is to propagate 
his religion. Instead of waiting for great conjunctures to 
arise before he begins to serve the missionary cause, or delay- 
ing until he has been transported to some distinguished field 
of usefulness at a distance, he must remember that wherever 
he is, the sphere of his duty is always lying around him. 
Instead of waiting for others to move, each one must act 
under a sense of his individual responsibility to Christ, and 
as if he heard the Savior's voice singling him out to tax his 
powers to the utmost in his service. Instead of taking ex- 
ample from the generality of those around him, he must take 
his standard from the word of God, and he will be furnishing 
a model for them, giving a pattern to the future, becoming 
the founder not of a new doctrinal sect, but of a body of 
Christians distinguished by simply harmonizing their life 
with their professions. Instead of admiring the devotedness 
of Christ at a distance, he must feel that, like Christ, he has 
a work given him to do, — the extension, or prolongation, in 
a sense, of the very same work ; — that as the course of 
Christ led direct to the cross, his life is to be a continuation 
of the same course, from the cross to the sinner whom 
it concerns; so that the same object for which his Lord 
came into the world and died, he is to live for till he quits 
the world. 

Heads of families must remember that parental influence 
and domestic relationships are to be consecrated to the same 
object. Not only must they train their children to habits of 
benevolence, early impressing them that the principal value of 
money consists in its subserviency to the cause of Christ, — 
they must look higher and farther even than this. They 
must themselves feel that the chief value even of their chil- 
dren, consists in their consecration to the same glorious 
cause. And, therefore, they must early begin to train them 
to take part in it ; instructing them in the nature and prog- 
ress of Christian missions; impressing it on them that the 
conversion of the world to Christianity is the noblest enter- 
prise in which they can engage ; inspiring them, if consistent 
with other claims, with zeal to embark in it; and in the 
event of their so doing, preparing, as far as possible, to sup- 
port them in it. 

Christian ministers must not regard the fact that they are 



IN RELATION TO MISSIONS. 345 

occupying spheres of usefulness at home, as a sufficient rea- 
son for declining to enter the missionary field. They are to 
consider, that as long as the demand for laborers is so much 
greater among the heathen than it is here, there is a standing 
call in Providence to exercise their ministry among them ; 
and that unless they can show the best reasons for non-com- 
pliance, they are bound to listen and obey. Should such 
reasons, however, exist, they must be missionaries at home. 
Their ministry, to be effective, must develop all the resources 
of the church, and bring them forth into actual operation. 
The holder of the five talents was to increase them, not by 
acting without them, but with them ; and the man of God, 
when put in trust with the ministry of a particular church, is 
to look on each of its members as a talent concerning which 
the divine Proprietor is saying, " Occupy till I come — em- 
ploy every member — every moment and faculty of every 
member — to the best advantage, that each may be the means 
of winning another, and that my church of five hundred may 
be the means of gaining other five hundred more." With 
this solemn charge resting on his spirit, he will feel that his 
first object is to make the most of that church, with whose 
instrumentality his Lord has intrusted him. Its members 
may not be educated, wealthy, numerous, nor, in a worldly 
sense, influential. But they are such as God hath collected 
and formed into a church, to take part in his sublime purpose 
of saving the world. One thing is certain, therefore, that 
they are all to be employed. In this sense, there are to be 
no " private Christians" among them. Every believer is a 
public man, taken up into the universal designs of the God 
of grace. In whatever sense they are private, then, like the 
ranks of an army all are to take the field ; the only concern 
of the minister must be how to dispose of his forces so as to 
render them most effective in the cause of God. A ministry 
which begins and ends with itself — however pious, intelli- 
gent, and eloquent it may be — is only the ministry of one 
man ; and even that counteracted, neutralized, and often 
rendered worse than useless, by the slumbering and selfish 
inactivity of the people. But a ministry which sets and 
keeps in motion an entire church, however destitute it may 
be of other qualifications, becomes, in effect, the ministry of 
all its members, and thus proves an instrumentality of the 
widest influence and of the greatest efficiency. And never 
ill the entire church is thus moved, and all its resources put 



346 THE WANTS OF THE CHURCH 

into actual requisition, will the full value of the Christian 
ministry be seen ; for never till then will it fully answer the 
high object of its divine appointment in the conversion of 
mankind. 

Why should not each church, or Christian community, 
take into sober consideration what is its proportion of the 
agency necessary to evangelize the world ? Every church 
has its few active and its many indolent members; or, at 
least, those who are kept from indolence chiefly, to avoid the 
shame and the remonstrances to which it would lead ; and 
well do the few know that if the many were as active as 
themselves, their collective usefulness might be greatly in- 
creased. And well does each of our great missionary socie- 
ties know that if all the unemployed resources of the com- 
munity to which it belongs were but brought out from the 
napkin in which they are shrouded, and from under the 
bushel where they are hid, and placed at its disposal, soon 
might the sphere of its operations be enlarged to an almost 
indefinite extent. Now, this must be done. The Lord of 
the church has made it the duty of his people statedly to pray 
that more laborers may be sent forth into the moral harvest. 
But this supposes that we are all anxious to furnish the requi- 
site number, and that as soon as any who are eligible for the 
work appear in the church, we regard it as an answer to our 
prayers, and take the necessary steps for sending them forth. 
Accordingly, instead of contenting itself with an annual con- 
tribution merely, each church must become, in a sense, a 
complete missionary society. If suitable agents, or those who 
may be made such, exist within its bosom, it must seek them 
out, and press them into the service. If the minister himself 
should express a desire to dedicate himself to the work, let 
the people generously sacrifice their own wishes for the good 
of the heathen. If the missionary preacher cannot be found 
among them, the missionary layman may. If the wealthy 
Christian has no higher reason for remaining at home than 
that which arises from his comfort and convenience, he must 
be affectionately admonished that the least he can do is to 
send and support a missionary in his stead. The churches 
severally must feel a distinct responsibility ; each must per- 
form a portion of duty ; the whole work must be taken up 
more in detail ; and each individual Christian must have the 
appeal carried home to his conscience as to the manner 
and the extent in which he will obey the last command of 



IN RELATION TO MISSIONS. 347 

Christ, till he feels that it is a question which he must per- 
sonally, and in the presence of God, decide. 

The church universal must unite. Not only must denom- 
inations of Christians verbally acknowledge the common 
guilt of their existing dissensions — they must be seen practi- 
cally repenting, sympathizing, cooperating, and even emu- 
lating with each other in the sublime struggle of saving a 
world of souls from death. " The plague is begun/' For 
ages the plague has prevailed. Countless myriads of immor- 
tal beings have, in consequence, perished. And still its des- 
olating influence sweeps over the nations. The recovery or 
destruction of unknown multitudes depends on the instant 
application of the divine remedy. That remedy is in the 
hands of the church ; and it is there that she may rush with 
it " between the dead and the living/' And what she may 
do, she must do ; nor must she expect to achieve " any de- 
liverance in the earth," any signal or final triumph, until she 
has laid herself out to the utmost with a view to it. "When 
Zion travailed, she brought forth," and not till then. " A 
woman when she is in travail hath sorrow ; " and so has a 
church laboring, and in pangs for the regeneration of the 
world. The only question with such a church will be, and 
the only consideration for us must be, Is it within the com- 
pass of our power to send the gospel through the world? 
Not whether we can send it with a small effort, or in a way 
which shall not materially interfere with our favorite plans of 
ease and habits of personal gratification. But can we, by 
" strong crying and tears," by the practical activity of a bold 
and vigorous faith, by the most strenuous and persevering 
exertions, furnish a dying world, the Savior's world, with 
the means of salvation 1 The question must be answered by 
the actual experiment of unreserved devotedness. 






PART VI. 



MOTIVES TO ENFORCE THE ENTIRE CONSECRATION OF 
CHRISTIANS TO THE GREAT OBJECTS OF THE MIS- 
SIONARY ENTERPRISE. 



It now remains that we exhibit and enforce some of the 
motives which exist for entire consecration to the great ob- 
jects of the missionary enterprise. And remembering how 
much may depend, under God, on their right selection and 
earnest inculcation, the writer cannot but numbly and earn- 
estly implore the gracious aid of the Holy Spirit, that none 
of the precious and momentous interests involved may suffer 
in his hands. As if all the heathen world were present as 
his clients, and he were pleading for them in the audience 
of the entire church assembled on their behalf, and within 
hearing of the reproaches of the myriads whom the church 
has suffered to go down unwarned to perdition, and within 
sight of the great tribunal, and of Him who sits on it, he 
would faithfully, affectionately, solemnly urge the duty of 
unreserved devotedness as the only hope, from the church, 
for the heathen world. Let Christians, then, devoutly consider 
the grounds on which we urge this, and the reasons which 
bind them to comply — reasons so affecting and weighty that 
although the wisest and the holiest men have in all ages 
united to enforce them with tears and entreaties, and though 
some of these men of God appeared to have been continued 
on earth chiefly to enforce them, devoting their whole lives 
to the work, yet they never have, never can have, full justice 
done to them ; reasons so vast, that in order to comprehend 
them, we must compute the worth of all the souls perishing 
in ignorance of Christ, through the want of it, and of all the 
glory which through eternity would redound to God from 
their conversion ; and reasons so deeply laid in the divine 



CONSECRATION TO MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 349 

purposes, that the great object of the advent itself — the sal- 
vation of the world — is suspended on their taking effect. 

Some of those reasons we have enforced already ; not wait- 
ing till we approached the close of the subject, but urging 
them as they arose successively out of the various Parts. 
Indeed, the whole of the First Part may be considered as an 
exposition of the scriptural obligations to the duty ; while 
the Second Part, on the benefits of the missionary enterprise, 
afforded us an opportunity of showing that the nearer we 
have approached to entire devotedness, the greater have been 
the advantages to ourselves and others ; the Third Part, on 
missionary encouragements, showed that nothing but such 
devotedness is requisite in order to give the gospel to all 
mankind ; even the objections to the missionary object, enu- 
merated in the Fourth Part, were shown to be either utterly 
unfounded, or easily convertible into motives to the most self- 
denying zeal for its advancement ; and the Fifth Part pro- 
fessed to show that such consecration forms the moral fitness 
which the church wants, and to specify the various respects 
in which, under God, it would tend to supply our missionary 
defects. 

I. We would now entreat the reader to consider that this 
entire devotedness is called for, if only to retrieve, as far as 
possible, the evil effects of our past conduct, both as individual 
Christians, and as members of the visible and universal church. 
As converted men, we can probably look back to a period 
when we lived exclusively to ourselves. During the whole 
of that time, we are to remember, our life was planted in 
battery against Christ. Through that entire period, our 
character was full of influence — daily and hourly increasing 
the power of old trains of evil influence, or originating new 
ones. Each of these trains is still in existence; all of them 
are at this moment in operation somewhere ; some of them 
doubtless in eternity, in hell. Tremendous reflection ! they 
have entered into the character of some of the lost — become 
elements of damnation ; and are now, while we are here at 
ease, imparting a darker shade of malignity to their thoughts, 
and deeper, hoarser accents to their blasphemies. And on 
they will go, extending and multiplying their fearful effects, 
till all of them have worked out and discharged their proper 
results in the same appalling issue. And is it for us to be 
now satisfied with the consecration of less than the whole of 
30 



350 MOTIVES TO ENTIRE CONSECRATION 

our remaining influence to counteract the evil 1 Even if 
Christ did not expressly require it, — if he were even to give 
us a dispensation from it, — would our sense of obligation, our 
agony of solicitude to retrieve the past, allow us to accept it? 
If tears could wash away the evil of the past, could we do 
less than wish that our head were a fountain of waters, that 
we might weep night and day ? But tears cannot ; to remove 
its guilt there must be blood of infinite value ; and to coun- 
teract its depraving influence, a spirit of almighty power ; 
while all that we can do — and surely we shall not plead for 
doing less — is to be the devoted, unintermitting channel for 
the communication of both to the world. 

Besides which, we now stand related to the Christian 
church ; and this entire devotedness is called for to retrieve 
the effects, not only of our own conduct, but also of those 
who for ages have been the professed representatives of dis- 
honored Christianity to the world. Let us think what that 
conduct, age after age, has been. From the moment the 
command went forth, "Preach the gospel to every creature/' 
the world was divided into two classes. Those who possessed 
the gospel were to view themselves as standing to the rest of 
mankind in the relation of guardians — agents of mercy — 
instruments of salvation. What they ought to have been we 
have seen — alas ! how perfect the contrast to what they have 
been ! It is fearful to think that, since then, forty thousand 
millions of human beings should have been allowed to pass 
through this world of guilt and woe on their way to a dark 
and dreadful eternity, without having heard from the church 
a single accent of mercy and salvation. It is startling and 
alarming to reflect that there should be a greater number of 
heathen in the world at this moment, than at any previous 
period since the gospel dispensation commenced; greater 
even than about fifty years ago, when the modern missionary 
effort began ; for while, owing to our languid measures, we 
are proselyting them only at the rate of some hundreds or 
thousands annually, they are yearly adding to their ranks, 
by mere increase of population, about three millions and 
a half. 

But we speak not of mere neglect. Simply to have dis- 
regarded the command of Christ to evangelize them, would 
have been harmless, perfect innocence, compared with what 
men called Christians have done under the pretence of obey- 
ing it. Simply to have left the heathen to perish in igno- 



TO THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 351 

ranee and idolatry, would have been mercy, benevolence, 
compared with the cruelties they practised under the name 
of conversion. As they ascended, generation after genera- 
tion, to the bar of God, and were asked the solemn question, 
" Where is thy heathen brother ? " to have been able to reply, 
" Gone down unwarned to perdition," would have been com- 
parative merit. But his blood was on their hands — they 
were there reeking from his slaughter — his injured spirit was 
there to accuse them. Let us track their progress among 
the heathen ; and, if we can find it by no other marks, we 
have only to select the path most strewed with the wrecks of 
humanity — it is sure to be theirs. What was Southern 
America a century after the first nominal Christians landed 
there ? the vast and crowded sepulchre of her murdered sons. 
Ask Northern America, Where are thy children of a thou- 
sand tribes ? and the hill and the valley which knew them 
once can only echo, Where? — for men called Christians 
have been among them. A voice is heard in the south, 
" lamentation and bitter weeping, [Africa] weeping for her 
children, refuses to be comforted because they are not. Thus 
saith the Lord, Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine 
eyes from tears ; for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the 
Lord; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy. 
And there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that thy chil- 
dren shall come again to thine own border." But whose is 
that land of the enemy ? and why were they taken there ? 
whose can it be but the land of Christians ? and what could 
they aim at but their conversion ? Unexampled infatuation ! 
In each of the instances we have named, the system of fiend- 
ish iniquity was commenced in the dishonored name of Christ, 
and for the professed extension of the faith. And yet — un- 
paralleled inconsistency! — the only men they martyred 
were those who attempted scripturally to extend that faith ! 

But speak we of the past? Still the evil rages and extends. 
At this moment, men called Christians are the main props of 
idolatry in India — more useful to Juggernaut than his own 
hereditary priests. They aspire not to serve at his altar ; 
they are content to hold up his train. Jesus and Juggernaut 
are alike to them ; and they lend the sacred shield of the 
one, to guard the blood-stained and worn-out throne of the 
other. Slavery, under another name, driven from disem- 
bowelled Africa, is coasting other shores, seeking whom it 
may devour. The monster has tasted blood, and will not 



352 MOTIVES TO ENTIRE CONSECRATION 

soon be driven from human flesh. Colonization and com- 
merce still advance, with murder in their van. Those ships, 
whose holds are filled with distilled poison ; those decks, 
piled with the instruments of destruction ; that large fleet, 
freighted with opium — all proclaim their sleepless activity 
and their chosen means. Go, mark the thousand shores and 
islands of the Pacific, and say, with what are their tribes 
maddened, but with the liquid fires which they have im- 
ported? with what are they slaughtering each other, but 
with the weapons which their hands have supplied? with 
what are they pining and wasting away, but with the loath- 
some diseases which their vices have left behind ? Mission- 
aries of Christ! is there a single coast, a solitary island, 
whose virgin soil has not yet been defiled by their touch ? 
Hasten away ; or they will be there before you ; there, to 
propagate an influence which ages of Christian effort will not 
be able to efface; there, to render the Christian name a 
name for avarice and treachery, licentiousness and blood. 

True, there are exceptions to these statements ; but rare 
exceptions they are. True, most of the actors in these tragic 
scenes have been Christians only in name; but in name they 
have been, and therein lies the evil. True, we are not 
directly answerable for the evil ; but deeply implicated we 
are. When Christians should have been protesting, counter- 
acting, moving heaven and earth against it, they all slum- 
bered and slept. Were they not then implicated in the guilt? 
And the only condition on which we can escape the same 
implication is, by doing what they neglected. Let us omit a 
single prayer ; withhold a single mite ; send out a single mis- 
sionary less than w r e could ; delay a single moment to do any 
thing short of all we can do ; and, during that moment, and 
to the full amount of that neglected means, we are implicated 
in the guilt, and are abetting the destructive influences, which 
for ages have been turning the Christian name among the 
heathen into a curse. 

Even if it were possible for Christians instrumentally to 
arrest and annihilate at a blow all the wide-spread machinery 
of evil which they have allowed to cover the earth in their 
name, ages would elapse, time itself must expire before the 
pernicious influence of what has been done would cease to 
work against them. But, till that blow be struck, not only will 
those evil influences already in action continue to extend, — 
new ones will be daily originated and augmenting their force. 



TO THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 353 

For the sake of the Christian name, then, in which the foulest 
atrocities have been committed ; for the sake of the church 
which has guiltily allowed it ; for the sake of that world 
which has meantime suffered the dreadful effects, and which 
often thrusts away the cup of salvation because proffered by 
Christian hands, let no one bearing the Christian name live 
to himself. Could each one multiply himself and his means 
a thousand fold, all would be necessary, if only to retrieve 
the guilt of the past. 

II. Entire devotedness to the cause of Christ is necessary, 
not only to retrieve the past, but as the only alternative of 
partial hostility against him at present. He that is not with 
me, saith Christ — and therefore during every moment in 
which he is not with me — is against me. Lax views on this 
subject are the origin of much of that inferior piety by which 
the church is enfeebled, and its usefulness impaired. Chris- 
tians generally appear to proceed on the supposition that there 
is a sense in which they are still partially their own ; that 
there are considerable portions of their time in which they 
are at perfect liberty to relax as they please ; that at such 
times their conduct is quite neutral in its influence ; that any 
thing short of positive hostility against Christ, is to be put 
down to the account of so much service done for him. Now, 
were this supposition as true as it is false — were it quite 
possible for the Christian to withhold from Christ a portion 
of his resources, without rendering by such an act the least 
advantage to the foe, it would still be highly inconsistent and 
unjust. For at the very moment we are relaxing in his ser- 
vice, unnumbered agencies of his are at work for us. At the 
moment we are self-indulging, we are doing it with his 
money, in his time, at his expense, by the light of his sun. 
But when we remember that every particle of influence with- 
held from Christ, is so much employed against him ; that 
neutrality here is impossible, — the consequences of such con- 
duct are alarming. Were it possible for us to ascend some 
mount of vision whence we could look down upon the conse- 
quences of our conduct, we should see that at the moment 
when we thought ourselves most perfectly detached from all 
around us, there is a sense in which we were then standing 
in the midst of the universe with lines of relation uniting 
us with all its multitudes. W« should see that often, when 
we thought our character most unobserved and at rest, it was 
30* 



354 MOTIVES TO ENTIRE CONSECRATION 

giving out moral influences without intermission ; that the 
moment they ceased to be good, they began to be evil ; 
that, however apparently unimportant, they have ever since 
been swelling that tide of evil by which myriads are borne 
on to perdition. We should see that the world is the scene 
of a moral conflict ; that in that conflict we hold an appointed 
post ; that at that post every thing we possess is a weapon of 
war ; that never have we ceased to wield it either for evil or 
tor good ; for the moment in which we thought we were only 
pausing, a shout of joy ran through the ranks of the invisi- 
ble foe, who beheld in that pause a proof of our weakness, 
and the sign and means of their own strength ; so that when 
we thought we were only doing nothing for Christ, they 
hailed us as an accession to their own ranks acting against 
him ; and thus we should see why it is that Meroz was cursed 
because they came not out to the help of the Lord, and why 
it is that, in the final judgment, those who did nothing will find 
themselves standing side by side with them that did evil, and 
involved in the same condemnation. 

It follows, then, that if we are doing a particle less than all 
we can do for the kingdom of Christ, we are incurring a 
proportion of the guilt of those who are doing nothing, and 
for the very same reason. The obligation which binds us to 
take any part in the grand conflict which is waging, not 
only holds us responsible for doing every thing in our utmost 
power, but actually regards whatever is short of this as so 
much opposition, with our cognizance, against him. Let us 
not suppose, then, that because we are doing something, we 
are sufficiently demonstrating our fidelity to his cause ; if 
we are only doing one third, so to speak, of what we could 
do, the other two thirds are operating, as ours, in hostility 
against him, as truly as that one third is operating, as ours, 
in his behalf. If there be, for instance, somewhere in the 
heathen world a certain amount or form of evil which my 
agency, armed with power from Heaven, might entirely sub- 
due, and I have aimed at the destruction of only one half of 
it, the other half must be regarded as my agency for uphold- 
ing the cause of idolatry. If a church, or an individual, 
support — as some do — a native teacher of Christianity in 
India, on the condition that he be called by the name of the 
Christian contributor, and if, while supporting only one, he 
could support two, he must be regarded as working there by 
two representatives — one for Christ, the other against him. 



TO THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 355 

True, the second or evil agent has not been named after him, 
is not supported by him ; but inasmuch as he could, by the 
divine blessing, be counteracting double the amount of evil 
influence which he is, that portion of it against which he 
proclaims no war, and makes no effort, is to be held- as work- 
ing against Christ, with his connivance, and in his name. 
Precious influence ! each grain of which exceeds all calcula- 
ble value. Well might our Lord be jealous for every particle; 
since there are but two treasuries in the universe, one for 
him, and the other for Satan ; so that every grain withheld 
from his falls into and enriches the other. And well may 
the Christian regard himself with all the sacredness of a 
temple, since he cannot yield himself to any other claimant 
than Christ, even for a moment, without yielding himself, 
during that moment, to a hostile party. So that, in truth, our 
only escape from partial hostility to Christ, is that of unre- 
served devotedness to his service. 

III. The reference we have made to the great moral con- 
flict which is pending, reminds us next, that the state of the 
heathen is such as to require the entire amount of Christian 
influence for its amelioration. It is affecting to think that 
while we are sitting, perhaps in our home, comparatively un- 
moved, there are, elsewhere, above six hundred millions of our 
race under the almost undisturbed domination of Satan; that 
these myriads are the wretched survivors of untold genera- 
tions, who have lived and died under the same vassalage; 
that, as if they were born and were living in hell instead of 
on earth, the destroyer is living and walking amongst them ; 
and that almost all the influences under which they pass 
across the stage of life, and which are perpetually darting 
and acting upon them from all sides round, are the influences 
of a system which he has been thousands of years construct- 
ing and maturing ; to which he has been constantly adding 
something, and the sole merit of which, in his eyes, consists 
in the efficacy and certainty with which it invades and de- 
stroys them. Such, we may suppose, was the sight which 
Jesus beheld, when from the mountain's top the tempter 
meant that he should see only " the kingdoms of the world 
and the glory of them." And is it true, that after the gos- 
pel has been amongst us nearly two thousand years, that 
spectacle is to be seen still ? Ascend, in thought, the same 
mount — we might say to the inquirer — -and you behold 



356 MOTIVES TO ENTIRE CONSECRATION 

substantially the same vision. Take a hasty glance at them, 
at least ; more you cannot ; for were they to assume the most 
dense and compacted form, days must elapse before they 
would all have passed. Look down upon thern — if the thick 
darkness which hangs over them will permit ; look down and 
mark their condition. Listen to the din of the great Babel: 
do you hear any voice of prayer 1 do you see any hopeful 
sign ? It is true they have priests — but they are impostors 
c$id murderers ; and altars — but they are stained with human 
blood; and objects of worship — but they " sacrifice to devils, 
and not to God. 55 Look closer still ; and as you look, think 
of all the elements of influence — ancestry — wealth — num- 
bers — you cannot name one which is not made to minister to 
their destruction. Enumerate the vices — avarice, sensuality, 
revenge — you cannot specify one which is not, not merely 
imbodied, but adored ; for these are their gods, under other 
names. You cannot point out a single object in the air, the 
earth, or the waters, which might be pressed into the service 
of sin, and which is not actually so employed. You cannot 
discover a single individual who is not acting on every other 
being in all that countless mass in confirmation of their com- 
mon depravity. You cannot name a sense of the body, a 
faculty of the soul, an evil propensity of our nature, which is 
not seized and held fast by as many hands as some of their 
false divinities possess, and which does not lend its willing 
aid in return. You cannot name a single moment, from birth 
to death, in which the whole of this infernal machinery is 
not every where in destructive activity, shedding poison and 
raining death ; an activity, compared with which the utmost 
mechanical velocity, or the still greater activity of the mate- 
rial elements themselves, are mere quiet and repose. 

And having surveyed this dense array of evil — having ex- 
plored this living continent of depravity — do you wonder 
that God does not burn it from the earth? — does not forth- 
with sweep the whole of these myriads away with the besom 
of destruction ? Them ! Destroy them ! Their guilt is, in 
one respect, venial, compared with the sin of the Christian 
church. Their state, fearful as it is, is explicable, compared 
with the conduct of those who hold in their hands the known 
means of their rescue, but refuse to employ them. 

Look, we entreat you, look at those myriads again. You 
think, perhaps, that you do see them ; many, at least, may 
flatter themselves that they do ; but, no, they have not yet — 






TO THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 357 

their conduct proves it. See, the countless mass is at wor- 
ship — before the throne of Satan, glowing as with the heat 
of an infernal furnace — with rage, lust, and cruelty, for their 
religious emotions. Look at them again — their demon wor- 
ship is over ; but, are they satisfied ? How eager their looks ! 
how objectless and restless their movements I how the living 
mass of misery heaves, and surges, and groans, and travails 
in pain together ! 

Look at them once more ; they are travellers into eternity ; 
mark, how vast the procession they form, how close their 
ranks, how continuous the line, how constant and steady the 
advance ! Do you see them now ? Then you see that angry 
cloud which hangs over their ranks — which moves as they 
move — and which ever and anon emits a lurid flash ; it is 
stored with the materials of judicial wrath. Do you mark 
them still ? Then you see that thousands of them have 
/cached the edge of a tremendous gulf — it is the gulf of 
perdition, and they are standing on the very brink. Are you 
sure that you see them ? God of mercy ! They are falling 
over — they are gone ! And we never, never tried to save 
them! Father, forgive us; we know not what we do. Sa- 
viour of sinners, spare us yet another year. We know they 
are lost — lost to happiness and lost to thee ! We could have 
told them of thee — shown them thy cross — given them thy 
gospel — pointed them the way to heaven. But they are lost ! 

Talk not of enthusiasm ! He who has felt most has not 
yet felt enough. We are speaking of scenes of misery over 
which a Paul wept w T ith anguish ! We are living in the very 
world for which Christ bled in agony ! Those very scenes 
which hardly raise an emotion in us, are the scenes which 
moved the heart of God — which produced the cross of 
Christ. So that were every Christian to tremble with emo- 
tion — were the members of every church to meet on the 
subject, to start from their supineness as one man, and to 
utter a loud cry of lamentation — were the whole church to 
be seized as in travail for souls, it would be only what sym- 
pathy with Christ requires, and what the state of a perishing 
world demands. 

IV. The duty of intense devotedness to the work of im- 
parting the gospel is greatly increased by the remarkable man- 
ner in which Providence has brought and placed the world at 
our feet in order to receive it. 



358 MOTIVES TO ENTIRE CONSECRATION 

There might have been but one unenlightened district left 
on the face of the earth — but one unconverted man — and 
he a miserable object, the lone inhabitant of some distant and 
desert isle. Yet such is the human soul, so incomparably 
superior, owing to its spiritual nature, its endless duration, 
and its vast capabilities, to the whole material universe, and 
so momentous an object is its recovery in the estimation of 
Christ, that, if necessary, it would be the duty of all the 
other inhabitants of the earth to have embarked their treas- 
ures, joined their supplications, combined and taxed their 
utmost resources, for the conversion of that solitary man. 
But if all this would be justified for the salvation of one man — 
if a particle less than all this would be a betrayal of our trust, 
an insult to all immortal natures, and treason against the 
throne of Christ, when only one soul was concerned, what 
must be the guilt of less than entire devotedness when the 
unconverted are so many that they are crow r ded in cities, 
swarming on islands, overflowing continents, teeming every 
where? If, when the church had so far " multiplied, and 
replenished the earth," as to have left but a single district 
unenlightened, it would yet be bound, if necessary, to devote 
all its united energies to the recovery of that solitary region, 
where could we find language strong enough to describe the 
inconsistency of that region, if on the contrary supposition 
that it alone possessed the gospel, and all the rest of the earth 
were perishing, it yet contented itself with a few cheap and 
easy expressions of concern for their salvation? 

But though this supposition partially represents our actual 
position and conduct in relation to the heathen world, our 
opportunities of saving them might have been such as to 
render the attempt all but hopeless. We might have been 
held in cruel slavery, unable to move without a chain ; or the 
scattered inhabitants of some arctic region, comparatively cut 
off from intercourse with the rest of the world ; or imprisoned, 
for every missionary purpose, in the heart of a vast continent ; 
or the idolatrous nations generally might be so averse to 
Christianity, as rigorously to inflict death on any of its agents, 
who might dare to approach them. And yet, if, even then, 
less than entire devotedness to the world's salvation, w 7 ould 
have been the highest guilt, by what plea can we now excuse 
ourselves for less, when the world, in a sense, is given into 
our hands? We might have been originally an island of 
barbarians, the prey of every roving pirate, and the trembling 



TO THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE, 359 

victims of civilized oppression. And, if then the dayspring 
from on high had visited us, and prepared us for all our sub- 
sequent improvement — if, as our ancient oppressors declined, 
and were recalled from the stage of action, we gradually 
emerged, and rose into national importance — if, when the ark 
of the truth was in danger, we were honored by God to act 
as its defenders — if, as often as our foes combined to destroy 
us, they were not only defeated, but doomed to the mortifica- 
tion of seeing us rise to greater prominence than before — 
if a name and a character became ours which operated uni- 
versally in our favor as a moral charm — if our commerce 
were welcomed in almost every port — if our political influ- 
ence were felt in every cabinet — if surrounding powers were 
dispossessed of their foreign dependencies that we might 
enjoy them — and if other vast and populous regions of the 
earth came unexpectedly into our possession, till a consider- 
able portion of the race were sitting at our feet — should we 
not feel that each stage of our course had brought with it an 
increase of responsibility, till our position had become one 
which left us no alternative, but that of entire consecration to 
its duties? But who does not know that this is far below the 
reality of our history ? 

What was our political condition only a century ago? 
The great powers which divided the empire of the world did 
not reckon us among them. The total number of British 
subjects, including those of all our dependencies, did not 
exceed 13,000,000. What is their number now? Upwards 
of 152,000,000 ; which is more than a sixth portion of the 
human race; considerably more than the population of the 
ancient Roman empire; nearly double that of the nations 
now subject to Mahometan rulers ; and greatly exceeding the 
number of those who acknowledge the supremacy of the 
Pope. In order to this, we have been permitted to succeed 
to the possessions of Holland and of Portugal in India — to 
the empire of the Mahometan sovereigns of India — to the 
commercial ascendency of the Venetians in the Levant — to 
a political and moral ascendency more nearly approaching to 
universal empire than probably any other nation of which we 
read in the pages of history. But why ? The believer in 
revelation has but one reply. Why was each of the great 
nations of antiquity made in succession the leader of the 
world ; why, but that it might answer some specific moral 
purpose, corresponding with its advantages and obligations ? 



360 MOTIVES TO ENTIRE CONSECRATION 

But failing to fulfil its high vocation, there came forth the 
likeness of a man's hand, and wrote the doom of each, and 
gave its power to another. 

" When do you expect that your nation will recover its 
power in India? " said an Englishman to a Portuguese priest 
of Goa, soon after the power of Portugal in India had been 
overthrown. The priest replied, " As soon as the wicked- 
ness of your nation shall exceed that of ours." We hold 
India by the imperative condition, that we subserve the de- 
signs of Providence respecting it ; let that condition be 
violated, and the possession ceases with the infraction. Our 
ascendency and advantages are so many talents of mighty 
worth : and he who has conferred them has done so with 
deep calculation, and for a special end. They constitute 
Britain the centre around which at this time revolve the 
hopes and destinies of man. But whatever the nation is, it 
is for the church. The military conquests of the former 
have been permitted only for the peaceful achievements of 
the latter. Territorial enlargements and political influence 
have been given us only to prepare the way and create a 
sphere for our missionary efforts. But who can measure the 
largeness of that sphere, count up the population which it 
contains, and remember that our opportunity for giving them 
the gospel is only for an appointed time — without feeling that 
for the church to lose a moment, or to neglect an effort, for 
saving them, is treachery to itself, murderous cruelty to them, 
and trifling with God? And the call for this unremitting 
concern becomes more urgent from the fact that, as a nation, 
we have obtained much of our political influence over them 
by an energy of application to our object in which treasures 
and lives, by hundreds and thousands, have been treated as 
the small dust of the balance. Shall less energy be exhibited 
by the church militant, in claiming them as the subjects of 
Him who is King of kings and Lord of lords ? 

And still further is this demand on our devotedness in- 
creased by the fact that a very large proportion of the heathen 
of whom we speak, not only ascribe our mutual position to 
an invisible hand, but are actually ready to place themselves 
as disciples at our feet. Hundreds of thousands of them may 
be said to be standing at this moment on the threshold of the 
temple of idolatry, ready to quit it forever. Shall we call 
them into the church of Christ, or shall we remand them 
back to rekindle the fires of their Moloch? and to rebuild 



TO THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 361 

the altars of their demon worship ? Multitudes of them are 
standing at the gates of the Christian church — the hand of 
Providence has directed them there — they bring with them 
signs from heaven that he has sent them, and that he expects 
us to receive and instruct them. Are we ready to make the 
sacrifices which the occasion requires ? At all events, if we 
will persist in neglecting them, let us plainly avow the reason. 
Before we finally dismiss them to destruction, let us, by pub- 
lic manifesto, or otherwise, exculpate Christianity, and blame 
the only guilty cause by telling them, " Your conversion to 
the Christian faith is an object of the highest importance. 
To effect it would greatly augment our heavenly happiness, 
secure infinite blessedness to you, and bring to God ever- 
lasting glory. As far as our instrumentality is necessary, the 
means are all in our possession. But we cannot furnish 
them without abridging our self-indulgence ; and as this 
requires more love for your souls and regard for the authority 
of Christ than we possess, we see no alternative but that of 
leaving you to perish." Now, startling as such language may 
seem, by what other terms can we excuse ourselves from 
entire devotedness to their salvation ? 

V. Some have exhibited this devotedness ; and here is an- 
other inducement to our consecration. For though our obli- 
gation is quite independent of what others may do, yet the 
fact, that some have entirely surrendered themselves to that 
obligation, furnishes us with an additional motive to do like- 
wise, and will render us the more inexcusable if we do not. 
Are we asked the names of such men, and who they were ? 
Ask — we reply - — ask inspiration the names of the men who 
first filled the world with the news of salvation, from the 
burning Paul to the humblest evangelist of his day. Ask 
Protestant Christendom the names of her reformers and con- 
fessors ; and she will tell you of a Wicliffe and a Zuingle, a 
Luther, a Melancthon, and a Huss — men of whom the world 
was not worthy. Ask our missionary societies the names of 
their honored founders — and they will tell you of men who 
travelled, pleaded, wept, while the world around them slept. 
Ask them the names of the missionaries they most delight to 
honor, and they will give you a long list of worthies, from an 
Eliot of the seventeenth century, penetrating the depths of 
the American wilderness, to the Moravian heroes of the 
eighteenth century, braving the snows of Greenland, down to 
31 



362 MOTIVES TO ENTIRE CONSECRATION 

the man of " Missionary Enterprises/' just gone to explore 
the Southern Pacific for fresh fields of gospel triumph.* And 
what shall we more say ? for the time would fail us to tell of 
a Brainerd and a Stach, a Swartz and a Coke, a Martyn and 
a Morrison, a Carey and a Marshman, who through faith sub- 
dued kingdoms to the obedience of Christ, turned spears into 
pruning-hooks, civilized savage tribes, smote off the fetters 
of the slave — gave the Bible to the nations — and went every 
where claiming those nations for God. Had the Grecian 
I soldier a loftier character to sustain after Thermopylae and 
; Marathon ? What a character have we to sustain since such 
" men trod the earth ? Yet ask them the secret of their suc- 
cess ; ask them, we say — for they are near us — do we not 
feel their presence? Are we not sensible of a great cloud of 
witnesses 1 Ask them the secret of their success — and, 
while they point to Him at whose feet they cast their crowns 
as the efficient cause — they will tell you, that, instrumentally, 
they owe it to the singleness of their aim, the unity of their 
purpose, the utter devotedness of their lives to their great 
object. And yet ardent, devoted as they were, in what respect 
did they exceed their duty ? 

Holy, honored, illustrious men, what are we that we should 
be admitted to your glorious fellowship ! Had you not lived, 
we should have applauded deeds which now we must pass 
unnamed ! We cannot talk of what we give in your pres- 
ence — you gave yourselves. We cannot boast of our enthu- 
siasm in your hearing — your zeal consumed you. We dare 
not speak of our sacrifices before you — you would remind 
us that the world has had but one sacrifice, and never can 
have another — and yet you gave your lives, your all. How 
have you raised the standard of Christian action ! What 
new responsibilities have you devolved ! Never can we vin- 
dicate our title as your successors, nor complete what you 
began, but by binding ourselves up with it, as you did, for 
life and for death. 

"" VI. The importance of a devoted church will appear, if 
we reflect that the distinguishing characteristic of the age is 
that of change and transition, and that only such a church is 
prepared to turn this peculiarity to the proper, the highest 
account. Never, since time began, was the human mind in 

* Now gone to his reward, as the "Martyr of Erromanga." 



TO THE MISSIONARY EiNTERPRISE. 363 

such close, quick, constant, sympathetic, universal commu- 
nication as now. And consequently, never was there so gen- 
eral and thorough an awakening of mind as now. Look 
where we will, it is quivering with impulses, thrilling with 
excitement, restless for change, panting for a good which it 
has not. This state of things has been brought about, partly 
by Christian activity; entirely for that activity. The world 
could not take the proper advantage of it, if it would, for it 
has not the means ; nor would it, if it could, for it has not the 
motives ; nor might it, under any circumstances, for the 
great changes and improvements of society are evidently 
reserved by God to be effected by his church. Hence, all the 
great and beneficial movements of the day — the liberation 
of the slave, the religious education of the young, the 
advancement of civilization — have, in fact, originated with 
Christians ; and for this obvious reason, that the glory might 
be exclusively his own. But for the same reason that these 
great movements have not originated with a worldly philoso- 
phy, the greater and more spiritual changes yet to take place 
will not originate with a worldly church. We want one of 
the primary means, which is visible union. And this makes 
it evident — evident to the world — that we want one of the 
primary motives — that zeal for Christ, and love for souls, 
which would impel us to unite. And hence it is obvious that, 
in the eyes of the world, we must be wanting in weight of 
character. For, in order to obtain the direction of public 
opinion at home, and to take advantage of changes abroad, 
we must be in advance of the world ; in advance of its intel- 
ligence in every thing relating to human welfare; in advance 
of its benevolent activity; but, above all, in immeasurable 
advance of its character. Rather, we should have said, we 
must have a character of our own to which the world would 
never venture to make a pretension ; a character for disin- 
terestedness, liberality, self-denial, and united supplications 
to God ; a character for being always ready — ready with 
our plans, and ready with our means, for seizing every open- 
ing of usefulness ; a character for denying ourselves that 
we might be thus ready, and yet not being sensible that we 
denied ourselves at all ; a character for living only for one 
object — to establish the reign of Christ upon earth. Such 
a character, indeed, the world might not admire, but could 
not resist. 

But £s this our character ? Are we thus ready ? Are not 



364 MOTIVES TO ENTIRE CONSECRATION 

a thousand doors of usefulness standing open at this moment, 
in India alone, which we are not prepared to enter ? Are we 
not distracted between the scantiness of our present available 
resources, and the number and diversity of the demands 
made on thern? Yet the world knows full well, and we 
know too, that, were we truly in earnest, we could multiply 
these resources a thousand fold. The world knows, and we 
know too, that the tax paid by the country on a single article 
of luxury exceeds all that Christians contribute to religious 
objects ; and that, of that tax on self-indulgence, Christians 
pay a large proportion, despite the cries of a perishing world. 
Now, what is all this but a want of character ; a want of 
weight with the world ; a want of readiness to take the direc- 
tion of its movements ; a want of fitness to be honored and 
employed by God in that capacity ; a want of that which 
nothing else could supply, but which itself could supply the 
want of every thing else ; for a Christian church thoroughly 
imbued with the Spirit of Christ, and devoted to the great 
object of its existence, would find in its character an amount 
of wealth, influence, and moral power, to which the world 
would render involuntary homage, and which God would 
crown with distinguished success. 

VII. Connected with this view is another consideration. 
If the present be an age of transition and change, it is, on 
that very account, the commencement of a new era ; on us it 
devolves to give the first impulse to that era ; but that first 
impulse is likely to impart more or less of its own character 
to the whole era of which it is the commencement — likely to 
propagate its influence on to the end of time : how unspeakably 
important, then, that the impulse should be of the most holy, 
ardent, and scriptural kind ! in a word, that it should be given 
by men living to Christ ! 

It is the undying, self-propagating nature of our moral 
influence, which invests every thing we do with so much im- 
portance ; its immediate effect may be trivial, but who shall 
calculate consequences never ending, ever expanding ? 
Christian parents, the scale on which you give is likely to 
affect the liberality of your children's children to the remo- 
test generation. Christians, you are living for futurity. The 
character you impress on the age is not to die with you — it 
is the legacy you will bequeath to posterity. The influence 
you are now putting into circulation is not to be limited to 



TO THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 365 

the present ; it will reach to those you never saw, and descend 
to other times. Churches of Christ, reflect ; traces of your 
character will reappear ages hence, in the churches of 
India and Africa, China and Japan — of shores yet undis- 
covered, and nations yet unformed. You are giving Chris- 
tianity to posterity : what kind of a Christianity are you giv- 
ing it ? A languid, feeble, spiritless thing, or a system instinct 
with life ? Shall it go forth to the world, and down to the 
future, covered with the honors and repeating the achieve- 
ments of its first days ? Or a half-hearted, torpid, self-indul- 
ging system, living on the world's sufferance, and struggling 
on for a bare existence? Remote generations summon us to 
duty, and adjure us, by the responsibility of our present 
position — by the bright hopes we cherish of millennial bliss 
— and by the certainty that the impulses we are now giving to 
religion will impart a character to that bliss — a lustre or a 
shade — that we give them the Christianity of apostolic times, 
fresh from the cross, and glowing with the fire of a Paul. 

VIII. But from all this it follows that nothing done for 
Christ is lost ; and that as the whole, with all its immediate 
and remote results, will eventually form "a subject of interest- 
ing retrospection, it supplies us with a powerful motive to 
present devotedness. We mean not to intimate that the cost- 
liest service we can render has any inherent worth, or any in- 
dependent influence, to produce the smallest spiritual results. 
But we do mean to say, that nothing scripturally done for 
Christ is lost ; that of every such act he graciously takes the 
charge — appoints it a place in his system of means — and 
causes it to move in a line parallel with the great laws of his 
government. 

Say, what of all the past is lost? The mites of the widow? 
True, the gift in itself was small, the act trivial ; but she has, 
in high moral effect, been giving them daily, ever since. They 
have multiplied into millions. Those mites have formed an 
inexhaustible fund, and to the end of time will constitute 
for the church an ever-augmenting treasury of wealth. 
What is lost? The labors of those who first took the mission 
field, and who have already fallen? True, they failed in 
some of their immediate ends, and fell comparatively unwept. 
But, holy, honored men, your day of moral power is yet to 
come. Already your names are our titles ; your memory is 
our inspiration ; your noble deeds are our heraldry ; your ex- 
31* 



366 MOTIVES TO ENTIRE COxNSECRATION 

ample, a precious part of our inheritance. By the perusal of 
your tale shall many a youthful bosom swell with the sacred 
ambition of living to Christ in heathen lands; and, as he 
hears your name pronounced with benedictions, or touches 
the soil which contains your hallowed dust, or opens the 
sacred page which you first laboriously unlocked to wander- 
ing eyes — your memory shall fire his zeal, and in his labors 
shall you live again. What is lost? The blood of the martyrs? 
True, they fell. The car of the demon to which they were 
sacrificed, rolled over them and on ; " their ashes flew, no 
marble tells us whither ; " the voices which bewailed them 
sank into silence ; the tyranny which crushed them waxed 
stronger and stronger ; and age followed age apparently only 
to blacken their names, or to proclaim that they had lived 
and died in vain. But did they ? Let the history of truth 
struggling with error ever since testify. Never have their suf- 
ferings ceased to thrill the general heart. Long have some of 
their softest whispers at the stake been oracles to support the 
suffering, and watchwords to animate the valiant for the truth. 

And such shall be your honored destiny, martyrs of Mada- 
gascar ! Precious were your deaths in the eyes of your 
Lord. Precious in our eyes is every drop of your blood. 
And the time shall come when precious shall be the spot 
where you were speared in the eyes of your own people. 
At present they deem you vanquished. But they never fail 
who die for Christ. That land belongs to him. And, when 
he assumes his right, your wounds shall plead for him ; the 
spear that pierced you shall blossom and bud ; your martyr- 
dom, subservient to a higher influence, shall give a resistless 
impulse to the cause of truth. 

That time will come ; the time when Christ will have 
taken, not that island only, but the earth for his possession. 
The price has been paid — the transfer made — the time for 
actual possession appointed — the approach of that time di- 
vinely indicated. Let us imagine that future period to have 
come. There is Christendom purged of its corruptions ; 
India without its caste ; China without its wall of selfishness ; 
Africa without its chains ; earth without its curse. All its 
kingdoms, consolidated into one vast spiritual empire, are hap- 
py in the reign of Christ, and prostrate at his feet. And will 
it form no part of the employment of that blessed time, to 
trace back that grand consummation to all the trains of in- 
strumentality which led to it ? It will, doubtless, form a part 



TO THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 367 

of the occupation of heaven itself. And in the prosecution 
of that inquiry, will there be one period whose annals shall 
be referred to with surpassing interest? One, from which 
that great ocean of results will be found to have derived 
many of its most important springs and streams of Christian 
influence ? That period will doubtless prove our own. And 
will not he be among the happiest Christians then who per- 
ceives that, by embarking his all in the cause of Christ, he 
has an ample revenue of glory to lay at his Savior's feet? 

Young men, remember this. The morning of your life, and 
the morning of a glorious day, are dawning together. Would 
you inscribe your names on a page which shall be read with 
interest by a renovated world ? In the great audit, would you 
stand for more than a unit ? Then must you spring to action 
at once. Delay awhile — and, go where you will, no country 
will be left for you to be theirs* to claim for Christ ; no lan- 
guage remain for you to consecrate by first pronouncing in 
it the name of Christ; no single tribe to whom you can 
present the first Bible! Happy deprivation! and is nothing 
left — no lofty mark for Christian ambition to aim at? Yes, 
the church has left you one, at least — and that the loftiest of 
all. There is yet left to you the high distinction of not living 
to yourselves. Aim at, and exhibit that distinction; and, at 
the period of retrospection of which we speak, it shall be 
found that if others began an era of activity, it was yours to 
eclipse them by commencing an era of devotedness. 

IX. But we ascend to higher reasons still. All things 
belong to Christ by original, mediatorial right, and were 
constructed by him expressly with a view to subserve his 
mediatorial plan. " All things were created by him, and for 
him." " He is both the First and the Last," the efficient 
and the final cause of all things. The creation of the uni- 
verse is not to be regarded as an act terminating in itself; 
or as performed merely for the purpose of exhibiting as much 
of the divine glory as, taken by itself, it was calculated to 
display. Nor is the mediatorial office of Christ to be regarded 
as an' afterthought — a supplementary appointment in con- 
sequence of the unexpected derangement and failure of a 
previous design. The constitution of a Mediator is to be 
viewed as having been the primary step toward the creation 
of the universe. Nor is the introduction of sin to be regarded 
as having been originated or necessitated by this original 



368 MOTIVES TO ENTIRE CONSECRATION 

arrangement. On the contrary, it implies that the evil hav- 
ing been infallibly foreseen, the entire plan of the divine 
procedure was laid with a view to an adequate remedy. 
Creation itself, therefore, was a mediatorial act; and every 
thing made was expressly intended to answer to the great 
remedial design, and was so made as to be best adapted for 
the purpose. 

It follows, then, that no part of creation answers its high- 
est end until it becomes subservient to the designs of Christ. 
Numerous other ends it may answer ; many of them may be 
important ends ; and all of them may be allowable ; but fail- 
ing of subserviency to the mediatorial government of Christ, 
it fails of the chief end for which it was brought into exist- 
ence. It was not till the earth echoed the first promise, and 
became a theatre for unfolding the scheme of mercy which 
that promise enclosed, that it was promoted to the grand 
office of its creation. It was not till the objects and elements 
of nature became recognized images and emblems of that 
great scheme, that the true reason of their existence and par- 
ticular construction was made known. The offices of prophet, 
priest, and king, — of father, husband, and friend, found not 
their true distinction till they became known types of the 
mediatorial relations of Christ. Till Christ assumed our 
nature, the great reason for the existence of humanity itself 
remained undeveloped ; and until he died, the temple of the 
universe may be said to have been destitute, except in the 
divine intention, of altar, sacrifice, and priest. The cross 
was the true centre of the world made visible. And here- 
after it will be clearly seen that all nations, objects, and 
events, answered their real design only as they revolved in 
subordination around it; that it never moved, but all things 
were meant to fall into its train ; never stood, but all things 
were called to bow down before it; never spoke, but they 
were all expected to echo its voice. It will, as we have 
shown, be distinctly seen, that wealth attained its true desti- 
nation only when it fell into the treasury of Christ; that 
speech realized its grand design only when it became " a 
means of grace ; " that all the relationships of life, and all 
the mutual influences with which those relationships invest 
us, found their proper end only when they harmonized with 
the central influence streaming from the cross. 

But what powerful motives does this view of the media- 
torial lordship of Christ supply to our entire consecration to 



TO THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 369 

his service ! For until the great design of the office be ful- 
filled in the spiritual recovery of the world, the unnecessary 
diversion of a single particle of influence from his cause is 
an act of rebellion against his authority. Had such a diver- 
sion been the first and solitary instance of the kind ever 
known, it could not have occurred without exciting a burst 
of loyal indignation from every part of the divine dominions. 
How much greater the guilt, then, of such an alienation now, 
when the rebellion is so general that nearly " all things " on 
earth, " created by him and for him," are turned and pointed 
against him ! Had an angel been sent down to-stand between 
us and every such act, it should not have deterred us so pow- 
erfully as this consideration. Wherever we look, we may 
rest assured that his eye is resting at the same moment on all 
within the circle, with a look of sovereign and jealous appro- 
priation. On whatever we may lay our hand, his hand has 
been there before us, and left a sign which marks it entirely 
for his own. Wherever we may go — into the bosom of the 
family, the place of business, the seat of power and na- 
tional government — he is there before us to assert his origi- 
nal claim, and to impress on every thing the solemn sentence, 
" by me, and for me." 

Little, indeed, do the rulers of the earth think of any 
higher end than that of national prosperity and aggrandize- 
ment ; and matter of high scorn would it be to them, to be 
told that, in the true system of things, they come after the 
Christian missionary, and are appointed to minister in his 
train. Little do the men of science, commerce, and power, 
concern themselves to inquire why " the sea and the dry 
land " were originally distributed into their present geograph- 
ical form ; why an insignificant island should hold distant and 
populous nations in dependency ; and why tides and oceans 
roll between. They need to be reminded, however, that in 
the government of Christ there is a reason for all this, and 
that that reason is worthy of him for whom the whole exists ; 
that it is something higher and greater than that of merely 
supplying their tables with luxuries, or even their coffers with 
funds. They are to be told that, could they be taken to the 
summit of that lofty reason, they would be able to command 
a view of both eternities ; that on looking down upon the 
movements of time, in vain would they look for the signs of 
their own existence, unless they are living for Christ ; that, 
from that height, the light of heaven falls on nothing which 



370 MOTIVES TO ENTIRE CONSECRATION 

is not directly or indirectly advancing his great design ; that 
it is reflected from the path of the Christian preacher with a 
strength which throws the track of an army into the shade, 
and from the vessel conveying a herald of salvation to some 
heathen shore with a lustre which leaves a warlike navy 
involved in midnight darkness. 

But if all things are for him, why are they not with him? 
Why will they not find the perfection of their nature, and the 
reason of their existence, in his service? It is not that they 
are not needed. So vast and full of grace is the design of 
the mediatorial economy, that it wants them all — has work 
for them all. It cannot do without them — consistently, that 
is, with existing appointments — it cannot do without them. 
They are the only instruments which it chooses to work with. 
It seeks to enlist into its service all the relations which bind 
us together, and all the natural means by which we influence 
each other. It claims the infant heart, by looking at it 
through the eyes, and caressing it in the tones of maternal 
love. The father's authority — the sister's entreaty — the 
brother's warning — the servant's fidelity — the tradesman's 
integrity and weight of character — the persuasions of friend- 
ship — the active attention of neighborly kindness — the 
disinterested benevolence of public life — the powerful influ- 
ence of righteous government — it wants them all, has work 
for them all. And even if it had them, the kindest tones 
cannot equal the tenderness of its entreaties; the hottest 
tears cannot express its anguish over human misery ; the 
most throbbing heart cannot beat quick enough to satisfy its 
eager longing for human salvation ; all the influence which 
collective man could wield in its behalf, could not do justice 
to its free, and full, and gushing benevolence — could not 
furnish channels wide and deep enough to pour forth the 
ocean fulness of its grace. 

X. But the great gospel argument for such consecration 
is one superinduced on that of the original right of Christ, 
and is known and felt by the Christian alone — the claim of 
redemption. " What ! know ye not that ye are not your 
own? for ye are bought with a price ! " The fact that Christ 
is our Creator and Proprietor, gives him, as we have seen, a 
right in us which nothing can ever alienate ; but on this right, 
original and unalienable as it is, he does not often insist. 
The fact that we have ever been cared for by his providence, 



TO THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 371 

that we have never been out of the arms of infinite tender- 
ness, gives hirn a claim on us which nothing can ever cancel ; 
but on this claim, strong and subduing as it is, he does not 
ordinarily insist. He has a claim more powerful and affect- 
ing still — the fact that he has bought us — bought us with 
a price ! He comparatively waives every other ground of 
claim, and trusts to this alone. He knows that all other 
claims are included in it or connected with it ; that this may 
be felt after the heart has become insensible to every other 
claim ; that it is the last and strongest plea which Infinite 
Love itself can employ. 

And what a claim it is — the claim of redemption ! 
Alas, that our familiarity with it should ever diminish its 
freshness and force ; that we do not always feel as if the 
price had only just been paid — the mystery of the cross just 
transpired ! To think that there should have been a period 
in our history when we were lost ; lost to ourselves — all our 
capacity for enjoyment being turned by sin into a felt capaci- 
ty for suffering ; lost to the design of our creation — all our 
powers of serving Christ being perverted into instruments 
of hostility against him ; lost to the society of heaven — the 
place which awaited us there to remain eternally vacant ; the 
part we should have taken in the chorus of the blessed to 
remain forever unfilled ; heaven itself, as far as in us lay, 
turned into a place of mourning and desolation ; lost to God 
— to the right of beholding, approaching, and adoring the 
vision of his eternal glory ! To think that, in point of law, 
we were thus lost as truly as if the hand of justice had 
seized us, had led us down to our place in woe, drawn on us 
the bolts of the dreadful prison, and as if years of wretched- 
ness and ages of darkness had rolled over us there. Well 
may we ask ourselves, again and again, How is it we are here ? 
here in the blessed light of day? here, in the still more 
blessed light of God's countenance ? here, like children sit- 
ting in their father's smiles ? Why is this, and how has it 
come to pass? Has justice relaxed its demands? or have 
the penal flames become extinct ? What, know ye not that 
ye are bought with a price ? It is the theme of the universe. 
Look on that glorious being descending from heaven in the 
form of God; know ye not " the grace of our Lord Jesus 
Christ" — that he sought no resting-place between his throne 
and the cross? Behold that cross; know ye not that "he 
loved us and gave himself for us?" that "he bare our sins 



372 MOTIVES TO ENTIRE CONSECRATION 

in his own body on the tree " ? Approach nearer, and look 
on that streaming blood ; know ye not " the precious blood 
of Christ," and that that blood is the price of your redemp- 
tion ? Hear you not the voice from heaven which now says, 
" Deliver them from going down to the pit, for I have found 
a ransom " ? Feel you not the Spirit of God drawing you, 
with gentle solicitations and gracious importunities, to the 
feet of Christ? See you not that he who was delivered for 
your offences, hath been raised again for your justification, 
and is now waiting to receive the homage of your love? 
How much owest thou unto thy Lord ? Try to compute it. 
He asks only his due. So that if there be any part of your 
nature which he has not redeemed, or any thing in your pos- 
session for which you are not indebted to him, keep it back, 
and apply it to some other purpose. But does not the bare 
suggestion do violence to your new nature ? does not every 
part of that nature resent the very idea, and find a voice to 
exclaim, " O Lord, I am thy servant, I am thy servant, thou 
hast loosed my bonds " ? 

And while standing in the presence of this matchless dis- 
play of grace, and subdued by its influence, does the eager 
inquiry spring to your lips, " Lord, what wilt thou have me 
to do? " Do ? what can you do but make known that grace 
to others ; what can you do but let the stream of gratitude, 
which his great love has drawn from your heart, pour itself 
forth into that channel in which a tide of mercy is rolling 
through the world, and bearing blessings to the nations? 
What did the apostles do under similar circumstances ? So 
powerfully were they constrained by the love of Christ, that 
they thus judged that, instead of living as if they were under 
little or no obligations to him, they should henceforth act as 
if the duty of living to him were the only obligation they 
were under ; and that the best way of doing that would be 
by conveying the knowledge of his redemption to others, 
and thus working out the grand purposes of his atoning death. 
What can you do but let your love to Christ take the same 
form as his love to you ? and what was that but compassion 
for the guilty, and active, devoted, unsparing efforts to save, 
the perishing ? He, indeed, could save, and did save, in a way 
in which he can never be copied ; but so much the greater 
our obligation to imitate him where imitation is possible ; 
especially, too, as the only walk of benevolence which his all- 
performing compassion has left open to us, is that which leads 



TO THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 373 

from his cross to the sinner ; and the only labor left us, that 
of endeavoring to draw all men unto him. 

XI. And this reminds us that not only are we his by origi- 
nal right, and his by redemption, but that the great object for 1 
which, relatively, he has brought us under such obligations, 
and for which he has, in addition, formed us into a church, is, 
that he might engage and engross our instrumentality for the 
salvation of others. If " he gave himself for us," it was 
" that he might purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous 
of good works." If we are " created in Christ Jesus," we 
are created " unto good works." " What ! know ye not that 
your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, 
which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? for ye are 
bought with a price ; therefore glorify God in your body and 
in your spirit, which are his." What ! can you have allowed 
an analogy so obvious as that which exists between a temple 
and a believer, to escape your notice ? Angels mark it ; and 
that is one reason why they rejoice over the sinner when he 
repents ; they know that God is consecrating another living 
temple, is advancing another step towards the completion of 
that universal temple destined to resound through eternity 
with the echoes of his praise. God himself designs it ; de- 
signs that the consecrated character of the temple on Zion 
shall be copied and repeated in the devoted character of 
every living temple. 

If, then, we would see the pattern of our Christian devoted- 
ness, let us go, in imagination, and survey the temple and its 
service. Are we not conscious of a holy awe stealing over our 
minds as we approach it? Such should be the feeling which 
the presence of the Christian inspires — that he is a man set 
apart for God. Let. us enter the sacred precincts, cross the 
threshold, and look around ; all its priests are the anointed 
servants of God — all its vessels holiness to the Lord — all 
its parts sprinkled with blood. Can we imagine any thing 
which we see in it, taken and applied to any other than tem- 
ple purposes, without a sense of profanation ? that priest, 
for instance, just offering the victim, polluted with licentious- 
ness? that sacred vessel, taken away and turned into a cup 
of intemperance ? that altar, transferred for a time to the 
temple of Moloch? or the temple itself, lent, during the inter- 
val of God's worship, to celebrate the orgies of some idol 
God ? Th© very thought seems profanation, blasphemy ! and 
32 



374 MOTIVES TO ENTIRE CONSECRATION 

why, but because we feel that the place is sacred to God 
throughout, and should be entirely and exclusively devoted to 
his service ? Weil, know ye not that the Christian is now the 
temple of God ? and that he has claims on our devotedness 
which he could never have on a material temple — the claim 
that every thing we are and have belongs by purchase to the 
God of the temple? and that, by voluntarily and cordially 
devoting the whole to him, he counts himself glorified ? 
" Thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege?" 

And not only every individual believer, but every particular 
church, is a living temple. Its members, " as living stones, 
are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up 
spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." And 
may we not suppose, must we not believe, that, as often as we 
meet in this capacity, the Lord of the temple himself comes 
amongst us ? Must we not conclude, that as he walks in the 
midst of the churches, marking the character of their ser- 
vices and the degree of their devotedness, his eyes are as a 
flame of fire? Is the particular church, then, to which we 
belong prepared for the searching inspection ? Does he find 
our knowledge of his salvation — the first Christian talent 
with which he intrusts us — kept, like a vessel of the sanctu- 
ary, bright and burnished, by constant use? Our speech — 
do "the lips of the priest keep knowledge," and the people 
"order their conversation aright"? Are our tongues like 
living censers for offering up the incense of praise ? The 
influence arising from our relationship — are we employing 
it as a golden cord for drawing others with us into the divine 
presence ? Does he find none of his property abstracted from 
the treasury, and lavished on worldly objects ? or is it all ready 
to meet his claims ? Is self-denial among us, bearing its 
cross, and presenting its precious oblations ? And Christian 
activity and zeal, flaming like an altar of sacrifice, and ready to 
say, "The zeal of thine house hath consumed me"? and 
prayer, interceding for the world ; wrestling with God for a 
universal blessing? Souls are perishing — souls have been 
perishing during the whole time of our connection with the 
church, and that church has been appointed instrumentally to 
save them ; amidst the wide-wasting ruin of immortal spirits 
perpetally going on around us, have we, by prayers, by entrea- 
ties, by the Spirit of God, saved one? We stand related to 
the whole church — to the entire world — and the present is 
a time in which that relation is daily becoming more visible, 



TO THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 375 

and entailing increased responsibility. Louder voices, and 
loftier claims, are summoning us to action, than any which 
the churches of former times have ever heard. Do we mark 
the divine indications in this respect, and sympathize with 
the cries of the world, and with the office of the church, as 
a great missionary society, to answer those cries ? Are we 
exciting each other to come to the help of the Lord ; and 
aspiring to lead the van of the Christian enterprise ? Is the 
influence of our Christian activity made to be felt around ? 
Are other churches glorifying God in us? Has the world 
reason to bless God for our existence ? 

But, if each particular church, still more is the church 
universal to be regarded in the light of a temple devoted to 
the service of Christ. Shall the Lord of the temple claim its 
entire consecration in person ? Why may we not suppose 
him to descend, and appear in the midst of his people, to 
enforce the claim? But how should we prepare for his 
reception? and what will he expect at our hands? " Blow 
ye the trumpet ; sanctify a fast ; call a solemn assembly." 
Every Christian of every denomination, " holding the head," 
should be summoned — for the occasion equally concerns us 
all. All we have must be brought into his presence — our 
children must be sent for, our property, our means of every 
description — whatever can be employed in his service. 
Nothing must be forgotten — nothing kept back. Thus 
prepared for his arrival, behold him come! him — the victim 
of Calvary — the Head of the church — the Savior of the 
world — clothed, as when John beheld him, in priestly attire ; 
and, in his countenance, majesty blended with tenderness 
and rebuke. Looking around on the hushed and breathless 
assembly, he may be supposed to say, in accents which thrill 
through every soul, " Ye are not your own; ye are bought 
with a price. Your bodies, your spirits, your children, your 
property, your churches — all these are mine. For this cause, 
I died and rose again, that I might be Lord of the whole. I 
come to claim it. If you can name any faculty of your nature 
which I have not ransomed ; any moment of your time which 
I do not confer ; any thing here in your possession which 
might not be employed in my service, it is yours to use at 
pleasure. Recall the past ; if you can name any effort, how- 
ever feeble, made in harmony with my will, but made in vain, 
with such efforts I dispense. Survey the world ! If you can 
point to a spot where the destroyer of souls is not working 



376 MOTIVES TO ENTIRE CONSECRATION 

the great system of destruction, that spot I allow you to pass 
by. Call for your race ; let them pass before you in their 
nations and tribes ; if you can point out one soul which is 
not in danger of perdition : one which my blood cannot 
cleanse ; one which does not belong to me — him I allow 
you to neglect. Hearken, and you may hear the loud and 
piercing cry of souls perishing ; if you can ever listen atten- 
tively without hearing it ; if you can discover a pause in that 
fearful cry even for a moment, during that moment I allow 
you to relax. But no, it is incessant. How long shall it con- 
tinue ? Shall not India have a cross? Shall not Africa have 
a gospel ? the world their Savior ? True, you have begun to 
lift the cross before the eyes of the nations ; and wherever 
you have done so, angels have had to celebrate its triumphs. 
But your talents unemployed, your resources unexplored, 
your opportunities unimproved, evince how small the sym- 
pathy you have hitherto felt with it. Lift it higher, that more 
may see it ; and higher still, that all the ends of the earth 
may behold it. I died for the world. Go, and proclaim it 
to every creature. The resources necessary are in your pos- 
session. I see them around me ; and I accept the surrender. 
For this alone have I waited. All things now are ready. 
The fulness of time for the world's recovery has at length 
arrived. Nothing shall now delay the great consummation. 
The Sabbath of time has come — the jubilee of the world. 
I hear its gathering sounds of joy. I see its myriads flock- 
ing — all flesh coming to pray before the Lord — my right- 
eousness their only robe, my name their only plea. My peo- 
ple, my own, my blood-bought church, if ye know the grace 
of your Lord Jesus Christ, if his love can move your hearts, 
if his glory be dear in your eyes, be faithful to your trust ; 
unite your resources; devote your energies; live for me. 
God himself from his throne shall rejoice over you, the eter- 
nal Spirit shall give efficacy to your every act ; and then, 
soon shall you see a converted world, and I shall see of the 
travail of my soul and be satisfied ; while Earth with all 
her tongues, and Heaven with all her harps, shall together 
roll the triumphant song, " Alleluia, the Lord God omnipo- 
tent reigneth." 

But this is the identical strain in which our Lord is to be 
regarded as constantly addressing us. In what other terms 
can we reply but by saying, Blessed Savior, we are here before 
thee ; we are thine. Do with us as seemeth good in thy 



TO THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 377 

sight. Only forgive the past. Breathe on us thine own Holy 
Spirit. Accept now our entire dedication ; and, henceforth, 
by thy grace, we will live to reclaim the world which thou 
hast died to redeem. 

XII. Only let these sentiments of devotedness be imbod- 
ied by the Christian church, and the honor and triumph of 
the gospel tvill be complete. And never till then will even 
the evidences of Christianity be complete. The logical argu- 
ment for its truth, indeed, is perfect ; no chain of reasoning 
can be more entire. But were its miracles to be all repeated 
again, and its prophecies to be multiplied a hundred fold, 
some signal display of the power and excellence of its motives 
would still be wanting as the practical result of the whole. 
That signal proof is simply Christian consistency — the con- 
sistency of a devoted church. In lieu of this, the world will 
accept nothing — not even the most convincing arguments 
and cogent appeals; " give us," they say, " a practical proof 
that you yourselves believe and are in earnest." Christ will 
accept nothing — not even the loudest professions; " if ye 
love me," saith he, " keep my commandments : ,; we our- 
selves can accept nothing — not even the activity of the mis- 
sionary enterprise — our consciences testify against us, and 
say, " All this activity is far less than you can do ; and you 
are pledged to do all that is possible for the recovery of the 
world. But where is your self-denial ? As yet, you have 
given only the crumbs that fall from your table ; where is 
your consecration ? At present, you act only from occasional 
impulse, or compunction, or the lowest degree of principle ; 
where is the weight of your character ? Not merely is it 
wanting — well would it be if this were all — but it is against 
you ; in exact proportion as it is absent from the cause of 
Christ, it is present to assist and promote the cause of his 
foes — to prolong the ruin of immortal souls. Until this evil 
be remedied, therefore, expect to be kept low, humbled, and 
disgraced, before the world ; to be strangers to every thing 
like pentecostal visitations from on high; to be fearful, un- 
certain, and unhappy in yourselves. But only remedy the 
evil — only be consistent — and then " arise and shine, for 
thy light will have come, and the glory of the Lord will have 
arisen upon thee." 

What could stand before the gospel of Christ, were all the 
spirituality of its doctrines, the holiness of its precepts, and 
32* 



% 



378 MOTIVES TO ENTIRE CONSECRATION 

the earnest and compassionate benevolence of its aims, imbod- 
ied and made visible in the living character of its disciples ? 
Who could doubt the reality of its miracles, when the church 
was seen standing upon them, so to speak, as on the mount 
of God, herself the crowning miracle — the great moral mira- 
cle of a vast community living, not unto themselves, but unto 
Him that died for them., and rose again ? Who could ques- 
tion the truth of prophecy, when the fulfilment of a thousand 
prophecies was realized in that sublime spectacle itself; when 
the Church herself became a standing prophecy ; her every 
act a presage of success ; her every conflict a prediction of 
victory; her consecrated character, as the representative of 
her Lord's character, prophesying to the world, in mute but 
mighty eloquence, that to him every knee must bow ? Who 
could doubt the reality, the superiority, the divinity of the 
gospel, when it had thus transferred the whole might of its 
own character to the character of the church ? We ourselves 
could not — though now, as the necessary result of our super- 
ficial acquaintance with that power, we often do — but then, 
in the largeness of its views, we should acquire such an ex- 
pansion of soul, and in the execution of its lofty purpose, such 
a sympathy with true greatness, as would make the weak like 
David, and David like an angel of the Lord. The world 
around us could not ; as in primitive times, " fear would 
come upon every soul ; " God would give us " favor with all 
the people," and would add " to the church daily such as 
should be saved." Nor could the heathen themselves; their 
great argument against Christianity would be gone ; the main 
objection with which our comparative apathy arms them, 
would, by the very change of our conduct, be converted into 
an irresistible plea in its behalf. 

Who, that is acquainted with history, does not know the 
powerful influence of superior character ? The world has 
nothing to compare with it. Laws, armies, revolutions, are 
only its creatures, or visible expressions. What deep homage 
the world has often paid to it ! Royalty has trembled before 
it, till throne and sceptre shook. A nation, in the crisis of 
its existence, has passed by the palace, and gone in full con- 
fidence of aid to the cottage — the aid of character. An 
army in its peril has sued to it, as in the instance of Swartz, 
and been saved by it. The history of Christian missions 
proves that whole tribes of heathen have been moved and 
subdued by it, even when years of preaching had apparently 



TO THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 379 

failed. And often has a corrupt church owed its toleration 
and continuance to the profound respect which the world felt 
for the character of a few of its members. But in all these 
instances, be it remarked, the character which has exercised 
the greatest influence is that which approached nearest to a 
union of integrity and disinterestedness — in other words, a 
character formed of holy benevolence. Now, what is this but 
the identical character which the gospel concentrates all its 
power to produce ? What was the character of Paul but this ? 
and what could wealth, rank, the world, have added to his 
influence for good? His disinterested, self-denying devoted- 
ness to the service of Christ, armed him with a power which 
will continue to be felt to the end of time, and which will 
probably be felt incomparably more then than now. But if 
the character of a single Christian can exercise such a sway, 
what would be the influence of a society of such men 1 Not 
living to themselves ; not meeting for purposes of gain, but 
freely sacrificing it all ; not prosecuting the Christian cause 
slowly and timidly, but from enlightened conviction, precipi- 
tating themselves into it ; abandoning themselves to it ; show- 
ing themselves ready to sacrifice life for it ! And if the 
influence of a single society of such men would be great, who 
can calculate the results which would ensue, were such the 
character of the entire church ? Were all the influences of 
which we spoke in the opening chapter — the influences 
arising from knowledge, speech, relationships, property, com- 
passion, self-denial, perseverance, union, prayer — were all 
these developed in the church to their utmost, and placed 
under holy principle, so as to become the sacred influence of 
Christian character, what a halo of glory would be shed over 
the whole of its earthly course ! Wer our conscientiousness 
in the service of Christ such, that we welcomed every duty, 
however trying; and such our courage in his cause, that we 
shrank from no danger ; and such our sympathy with the 
travail of his soul, that our toils and travail for the same object 
knew no limits — what a kind of emblazonment would be 
thrown over the very name of Christianity ! If we had simply 
acquired the character of not living to ourselves; of sincerely 
commiserating the miseries of the world, and of practically 
devoting ourselves to their removal — how impossible it would 
be to pronounce that name, without calling up in the heart 
feelings of homage and love ! The character of the church 
would give it the mastery of the world, and invest it with 



380 MOTIVES TO ENTIRE CONSECRATION 

glory in the eyes of God ; " and upon all the glory there 
should be a defence." 

Now, what was the character of Christ but this? And 
what is our character to be but a copy of his 1 As his rep- 
resentatives, Christianity is to possess us, to live over again 
the life of Christ in us — speaking through us, breathing in 
us, acting by us. And it is this identity of character with 
the character of Christ which is to invest our every move- 
ment with so much influence. It is not to arise, as we have 
intimated already, from the increase of property and resources 
which such a self-denying character would necessarily place 
at our disposal — though that is to be taken into the account 
— but from its placing our character in harmony with per- 
fection. The influence of Christ himself arises from his 
having placed himself, in an infinitely higher sense, indeed, 
in perfect harmony with the will and character of the Father. 
Sin had introduced apparent disorder into the divine govern- 
ment, arraying law against law, and justice against mercy. 
Every principle of that government — every law in the uni- 
verse — was calling, crying, for vindication in the punish- 
ment of man ; while love, in apparent opposition to them all, 
was calling for his deliverance. Christ met them all with the 
cross; appeased them all, harmonized them all, and set them 
all again at liberty. His cross owes its influence entirely to 
the fact that he thus placed it, as the means of atonement, 
in harmony with all the great laws of the divine government. 
By abandoning himself entirely to these, he moved the uni- 
verse. All moving powers, all spiritual influences, the Holy 
Spirit himself, has thus become his. 

And as he acquired his infinite influence in the mediato- 
rial government by placing himself, as the great sacrifice for 
sin, entirely at the divine disposal, and by identifying himself 
with the cause of holiness and mercy, the subordinate influence 
of our character is to arise entirely from our identity with 
his. By moving only in a line with him, taking law from no 
lips but his, copying no example but his life, and living 
instrumentally for no end but that for which he efficaciously 
died, our character would be in effect the prolongation of his 
own, and our influence his influence. The world could not 
doubt our identity with Christ ; for they could not hear us 
speak, in our Christian capacity, but they would hear the 
compassionate voice of Christ; nor could they look on our 
conduct without being reminded of his example. They could 



TO THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 381 

not doubt of the power of Christian principle ; for they would 
see that it secured the self-denying energy of the whole man, 
the whole church. They could not question the distinctive- 
ness of the Christian character; they would feel that the 
world had nothing like it ; that the entire church was an 
organization as distinct from every other society as if it had 
come down direct from heaven ; and yet that it stood apart 
from the world and above it, only that it might draw them 
more effectually to Christ. They could not doubt our belief 
of their danger, or the depth of our concern for their deliver- 
ance, for they would see it in the unremitting earnestness of 
our efforts to save them. Nor could they doubt any longer 
the power of the gospel to transform the world ; for every 
day would bring them the report of fresh accessions made to 
the kingdom of Christ. Only let the church be itself; only 
let it become the devoted agency which it was meant to be ; 
and the world should soon be given into its hands. Who 
could see it move in its missionary path without being ready 
to precede it as its eager herald, snouting, "Prepare ye the 
way of the Lord " ] for Christ himself would be with it. Who 
could look down on the idolatrous regions which lay in its 
route without summoning them to surrender in the name of the 
Lord, and feeling the certainty of their speedy subjection to 
Christ 1 Who could look into the roll of prophecy without 
the full conviction that all those predictions which paint the 
universality and glory of Messiah's reign had reached the eve 
of their fulfilment ? The honor and triumph of the gospel 
would be completed. 

XIII. Our regard for the glory of God requires this con- 
secration. This motive alone should be sufficient to engage 
the entire church in one unsparing effort for the world's con- 
version. Darkness still covers the earth. Satan is still the 
god of this world. Idolatry continues to defy the heavens. 
Alas ! what a debased and maddened world turns round to 
the eye of God! What shouts of hostility arise from it! 
What spectacles of shame, what enormities of guilt, are ex- 
hibited upon it ! Now, can we remember whose character it 
is which is most insulted by this fearful state of things, and 
whose interest it is which is most wronged, without feeling 
" grieved at heart"? Can we imagine him " looking down 
from heaven," as of old, " upon the children of men, to see 
if there are any that understand and seek after him," and 



382 MOTIVES TO ENTIRE CONSECRATION 

then picture to our minds the scenes which present them- 
selves to his holy eye — the polytheism and practical atheism, 
the sottish ignorance, the horrid rites and ceremonies, the 
depraved passions, unnatural cruelties, and revolting immo- 
ralities — without feeling a holy zeal for God kindling within 
us? Can we imagine him listening to the sounds at this mo- 
ment ascending from the vast regions of Asia, and think of 
" the lords many and gods many " whose names he hears in- 
voked, while his own is comparatively unpronounced, with- 
out feeling even an anguish of concern for the vindication 
of his righteous claims? Can we remember that the Being 
who is thus robbed of the homage of his creatures is " God 
over all blessed forever " ? and that the being who appropriates 
that homage is the enemy of God, and the destroyer of souls, 
without feeling " very jealous for the Lord God of Israel " ? 
Or can we remember, that while much of the great array of 
evil of which this world is the scene, is maintained in open 
defiance of his reign, as if he were the Tyrant instead of the 
God of the universe, many of the prevailing atrocities are 
perpetrated in his name, and as acceptable homage to his 
throne, as if he were the great Patron of iniquity : — can we 
think of this without lifting up our eyes to heaven, as Jesus 
did, and exclaiming, " O righteous Father, the world hath 
not known thee ! " 

But might they not have known him? And, if so, must 
not the guilt of their ignorance, at present, rest on those who 
might have made him known? And can we remember what 
it is that we have to make known concerning him, without 
feeling that every moment during which we continue to with- 
hold the gospel from the nations we are virtually withholding 
from God his highest glory ; that we are concealing from them 
a scheme of mercy from which he is expecting to derive his 
richest revenue of praise forever ? The knowledge of the 
arts, the discoveries of science, the treasures of philosophy — 
all these might be kept from them with comparative impuni- 
ty ; but that we should keep back from them, age after age, 
knowledge so important that prophets have been sent to im- 
part it, angels have been the bearers of it, the Spirit himself 
has uttered it, till, in these last days, God has actually spoken 
to us by his Son ; knowledge which so deeply concerns his 
own character, that it cannot be withheld without the most 
fatal results, nor imparted without reflecting on his name 
eternal glory, — this should surely cover us with shame as it 



TO THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 383 

does with guilt. What if no news had come from heaven 
since the voice of inspiration died for a time on the lips of 
Malachi ; what if no voice had ever cried in the wilderness, 
" Prepare ye the way of the Lord ; " and no intimation been 
afforded that " God is love" — what at this moment would 
have been the state of the world but that of universal gloom 
and desolation ? its only light streaming from the fires of 
demon worship, its only sounds yells of defiance against 
Heaven? Yet such, in effect, is the lamentable condition in 
w T hich we are voluntarily allowing large portions of the earth 
to lie. As if God had never spoken to us, we have never 
spoken to them. As if he were the cruel Moloch they sup- 
pose him to be, we have never told them the glorious fact 
that He is love — that he hath " so loved the world as to give 
his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should 
not perish, but have everlasting life." As if he were quite 
as much in love with obscenity, revenge, and blood, as they 
choose to believe him, we have not chosen to warn them to 
the contrary. As if he had taken no steps whatever to cor- 
rect the fatal error, had evinced no concern at the stain which 
thus blots out his glory — though in every age, and through 
every moment of the time that he has been suffering the foul 
and enormous wrong, he has been reminding us that he is 
filled with jealousy for his name's sake, and urging us to 
preach the gospel to every creature, as the only way of put- 
ting an end to the great lie which is every where told and 
believed against him, we have taken no steps to vindicate his 
blessed name. And the consequence is, that the glory of 
the incorruptible God is still represented by the most degrad- 
ed and loathsome forms, and "the truth of God is changed 
into a lie." And yet we profess to feel for the dishonor put on 
him! Where, considering our means — where is our con- 
sistency 1 

But grievous as this dishonor is when considered simply by 
itself, there is a consideration which, in the eye of God, ag- 
gravates it without measure — the fact that it should be in- 
flicted on him at the expense of his only-begotten and well- 
beloved Son. To have kept back the disclosures concerning 
himself made by his mere human messengers, would have 
been highly dishonoring to God ; but that we should keep 
back from the dark world, not only his glory, but the very 
" brightness of his glory ; " that we should conceal from a 
world filled with the most revolting and hideous images of 



384 MOTIVES TO ENTIRE CONSECRATION. 

Deity, " the Express Image of his person " — this is to put a 
slight on the character and work of Christ, which he cannot 
away with. That we should have seen the cross of Christ, and 
should yet have allowed the world to go on offering its human 
and other sacrifices, as if he had not " died once for all ; " 
that we should have held his gospel in our hands, and yet 
have allowed a thousand impostors and demons to publish 
their Shastres and Korans instead; that we should " know 
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ," grace so amazing that 
it is ever receiving ineffable expressions of the Father's com- 
placency, and filling all heaven with praise, and yet that we 
should account it hardly worth reporting — this is to " wound 
the Father through the Son ; " and that we should act thus, 
knowing as we do know how the heart of God is set on the 
glory of Christ, the height to which he has exalted him, and the 
promises of universal dominion and homage he has made to 
him — this is not merely to dishonor Infinite Majesty, but, 
what is incomparably worse, to inflict a wound on the very 
heart of Infinite Love. 

Or can we, finally, remember what is to be the end of the 
whole mediatorial economy — that it is to redound "to the 
praise of the glory of his grace" — without feeling that to 
do any thing less than the utmost in our power to hasten the 
great consummation, is to publish our guilty indifference con- 
cerning it? It is impossible, even now, for the true Christian 
to hear of a single rebel submitting to God, and being brought 
back into harmony with the holy universe without rejoicing 
in the honor which it brings to God. The very angels 
rejoice on account of it, in the presence of God. They see 
so many laws harmonized by it, so many claims satisfied, so 
much glory reflected on every attribute of the Triune God, 
that they rehearse for the last great chorus of the universe. 
But if the recovery to God of a single sinner redounds so 
greatly to his praise, what will be the glory accruing to him 
from a recovered world ? In some respects he will be hon- 
ored more by the obedience of earth, than by the homage of 
heaven. There his glory has never been obscured ; here it 
has suffered a long and dreadful eclipse ; when, therefore, it 
shall again irradiate the world, well may the unfallen before 
the throne exclaim, " Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of 
hosts ; the whole earth is full of his glory ! " When, in de- 
fiance of the machinations of the prince of darkness, and 
the mighty depravity of man, the empire of grace shall be 



TO THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 385 

every where triumphant, what honors will be recovered to the 
blessed God of which he has long been defrauded ! When 
all things shall be sacred to his name, and all hearts reflect- 
ing his image, what expressions of his purity and love will 
be poured over the earth as the waters cover the sea ! How 
will the mountains echo it to the valleys, and the valleys roll 
it back again to the mountains, that even here, at length, " the 
Lord God Omnipotent reigneth " ! How will one continent 
proclaim it to another, and the ocean waft it to the main, that 
" the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of 
our Lord and his Christ ! " And when it shall be distinctly 
seen that, from first to last, the recovery of the world was 
entirely owing, through every stage and every step, to his 
boundless grace, what ascriptions of honor will the assembled 
and admiring universe pour forth, like the sound of many 
waters, to God and to the Lamb ! 

Now, is it possible for us to know that for that glory he is 
waiting ; that his church is constituted expressly to promote 
it ; and that he is looking to every member of that church to 
hasten its arrival, without feeling ourselves called on individ- 
ually to put forth all our energies for its speedy consumma- 
tion ? Can any object in the universe be so momentous as 
the vindication of the divine character, and the completion of 
the divine glory ? All other interests, compared with it, are 
lighter than nothing, and vanity. Compared with this, nothing 
is sacred, great, or precious. At the least signal, all heaven 
would rush together for its vindication ; every holy intelli- 
gence become a champion in its behalf. And is it possible, 
that though the vindication of his glory has in an important 
sense been given into our charge — and though all the world 
is denying his existence, aspersing his name, or usurping his 
rights, yet on turning his eyes from that great spectacle of 
blasphemy, to see what his church is doing for its abatement, 
he should find us conniving at it, and, by our conduct, con- 
firming it? Is it possible that the least stain cast upon our 
own name should arm our every power for its vindication, 
while the sight of hundreds of millions trampling his honor 
in the dust, and laboring in mad enmity to extinguish the last 
ray of his glory, should yet leave us calmly to give nearly all 
our time and attention to " what we shall eat, and what we 
shall drink, and wherewithal we shall be clothed " ? " Father, 
forgive us, we know not what we do." 

But not long can this state of things continue. The great 
33 



386 MOTIVES TO ENTIRE CONSECRATION 

cause of the divine glory has come on in the heathen world 
Ages have elapsed since the Christian church was commis- 
sioned to plead that cause in all the earth. Still, however, 
the momentous controversy remains undecided. But God 
is giving indubitable signs that he will now bring it to an 
issue. Every minor interest must stand by. The theatre of 
the world is clearing for the decision. The church is im- 
peratively summoned to appear and give witness for God. 
To us he is saying, as he did to the members of his ancient 
church, " Ye are my witnesses, that I, even I, am God, and 
besides me there is no Savior." Christians, the world is 
waiting to receive your evidence. " By the mercies of God," 
will you not go and testify in his behalf? Satan is witnessing 
against him, and millions are crediting the revolting testi- 
mony ; will you not hasten or send to testify for him ? Athe- 
ism and Buddhism are denying his existence ; and China, one 
third of the human race, believe it ; will you not go and pro- 
claim, " This is the true God, and eternal life " ? His ancient 
people are scattered over all the earth, each of them still 
with a veil over his heart, and stained with the blood of the 
Just One ; will you not beseech them to " look upon him 
whom they have pierced," and urge on them his claims as 
their own Messiah ? Popery is concealing, imprisoning, 
destroying his word as a dangerous book, and embracing an 
image or an amulet instead ; will you not enable and urge 
its votaries to "search the Scriptures," to consult them as 
the " oracles of God"? Mahomet an ism is denying the di- 
vinity of his Son, and honoring an impostor in his stead; will 
you not attest that there is none other name under heaven given 
among men, whereby we can be saved, but the name of his 
Son our Savior? Hindooism is affirming that his name is 
Kalee, and that he has given one half of the human race to 
be slaughtered for his honor ; that it is Juggernaut, and that 
his worshippers must be covered with the scars of self-torture, 
and his chariot grind its way through a path strewn with their 
^rostrate bodies ; will you not arouse, will you not impel 
Jiers to join you, and will you not speed to tell them all that 
"God is love" ? universal and infinite love? Shall his cause 
have only a few friends to espouse it? Shall "the church 
of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood," find 
few tongues to proclaim that that " blood cleanseth from all 
sin " ? 

Followers of God, his cause, your cause, the cause of a 



TO THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 387 

aeluded and dying world, is before you. In every part of the 
vvorld he has obtained for you a hearing, and is awaiting 
your arrival. At this moment he is saying to his church, to 
every individual member, to the Christian reader of this 
book, — and saying it, not for the third, but the thousandth 
time, — " Lovest thou me 1 " Then, by the tender and melting 
considerations which led you at first to surrender yourself to 
my claims ; by the weight of all the obligations under which 
my grace has laid you ; if there be any thing in my gift of 
Christ to excite your love, any thing in his blood to benefit 
the world, any thing in my glory to engage your concern, 
awake to your high prerogative and office, call down the aid of 
the Holy Spirit, and let every creature hear you " testify thai 
the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world." 
Soon should " my name be great among the heathen ; and in 
every place incense and a pure offering would be offered on 
my altar." No longer should my character be defamed, my 
government impugned, my designs impeached and opposed, 
nor my honors usurped ; but every where would my claims 
be brought forward to the public view, and every where 
should I be acknowledged as ' ; God over all, blessed forever." 
The earth should be " filled with my glory, and all flesh see 
it together." 

XIV. Then such a consummation of the divine glory 
would be equally the completion of human happiness. In- 
deed, what but this constitutes the happiness of heaven 1 
Conceive of the will of God " done on earth as it is in 
heaven," and you conceive of " the days of heaven upon 
earth." The last idol would have been cast away ; and the 
last rod of the last oppressor broken. Every government 
would but execute the law of God, and every subject would 
but obey the gospel. The activities of mind, the discoveries 
of enterprise, the accumulations of wealth, the changes of em- 
pire, the revolutions of time, — all would be seen laid at his 
feet, and falling into his plan. Every habitation would be a 
house of God ; every occupation a holy exercise ; every day 
a return of the Sabbath; for whatever was done " would be 
done to the glory of God." Like what a sea of glass would the 
universal mind of man become ; every where pure and un- 
ruffled, and reflecting only the colors of the rainbow round 
about the throne ! What a world ! when, compared with its 
all-pervading peace, and loveliness, and light, " the former 



388 MOTIVES TO ENTIRE CONSECRATION 

heavens and the former earth shall not be remembered nor 
come into mind." 

And is there ground to conclude that this sublime result 
shall be realized? " The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." 
" I have sworn by myself, the word hath gone out of my 
mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, that unto me 
every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall swear." At 
what precise period, or to what exact point of perfection the 
result may be realized, we cannot say, and are not anxious 
to know. Sufficient is it for us to know that the time shall 
come when the world shall be seen prostrate before God in 
worship. And then will it be clearly perceived that this 
has been brought to pass as the result of all that God has 
planned, and Christ has suffered, and the Spirit has effected. 
The very mention of his name then will be sufficient to 
bring the world into a posture of adoration. They will come 
before him hungry for his blessing, languishing for his Spirit, 
coveting, craving the gifts of his grace. " O Thou that 
hearest prayer, to thee shall all flesh come ! " They shall not 
be satisfied to enjoy thee alone ; they shall go cut, and with 
a friendly violence compel others to come in, and share thy 
favors with them. " It shall come to pass, that there shall 
come people and the inhabitants of many cities; and the in- 
habitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go 
speedily to pray before the Lord, and to seek the Lord of 
hosts; I will go also. Yea, many people and strong nations 
shall come to seek the Lord, and to pray before the Lord." 
Churches shall come to adore him, cities to consult him, 
nations to surrender to him, all the kindreds of the earth to 
fall down before him. They shall not be content to praise 
him alone ; they shall feel as if they wanted help — the help 
of the world — to raise a song adequate to his praise, and a 
prayer equal to the ardor of their desires. " And it shall 
come to pass that from one new moon to another, and from 
one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before 
me, saith the Lord." 

Then man will have found his only proper place; will 
have returned to the only spot in the universe which becomes 
him — at the feet of God. And, having found his proper 
place, his ultimate end, there will he rest; going out of him- 
self, and losing himself in God. Then God will have recov- 
ered his proper glory ; every idol will be abolished, every rival 
power cast out, the eyes of all will wait upon him, all flesh 



TO THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 389 

will be seen staying themselves upon him ; he will be seen by 
the universe as the centre of a lapsing creation — the support 
and stay of a sinking world. Then the design of the whole 
gospel constitution will be completed — " that no flesh should 
glory in his presence ; " every thing will have redounded to 
the glory of his grace. And when all flesh shall thus be seen, 
in effect, prostrate before God in prayer, what will it be but 
a prelude to the worship of heaven ? What will remain but 
that the whole should be transferred to the employment of 
praise above ! Infinite love, ascending the throne, and put- 
ting on the crown, shall sit down and enjoy an eternal Sab- 
bath of love! while the myriads of the redeemed and* glori- 
fied, casting their crowns before him, shall ascribe their 
happiness to him, and the jubilee of eternity shall begin. 

And is such to be the end of the missionary enterprise? 
And is this the object at which it calls us to aim ? Chris- 
tian, where else are interests like these at stake? Where 
else, amidst all the enterprises of time, does so wide a field 
stretch before the view, or such momentous consequences 
await the result? To overrate such an object is impossible; 
to stand aloof from it, or even to regard it coldly, is enormous 
guilt. What, then, is the amount of practical interest which 
you are taking in it ? Ask yourself — is it at all commen- 
surate with its mighty claims? 

The policy of statesmen, and the projects of national 
ambition, may lay wide their schemes over other realms, and 
subordinate passing events, and entail the fulfilment of their 
designs on their successors to a distant posterity ; but here 
is a scheme so vast in its sweep, as to subordinate all other 
plans to its design ; so varied in its workings, as to demand 
the strenuous activity of every agent in the universe ; and 
yet so self-sufficient as absolutely to stand in need of none. 
Need you be reminded that in the arrangements of that plan 
a post of activity is assigned to you ; and that in that post 
the whole of your sanctified influence is laid under tribute 
through every moment of life ? Great, indeed, is your guilt 
if you are acting on any independent plans of your own ; if 
you are planning for any thing but how best you may blend 
with its working, and aid in its accomplishment. 

A mere worldly philanthropy may boast of its generous 
doings, and point to its schools, and hospitals, and human- 
izing institutions — though even these were originated indi- 
rectly by the influence of Christianity ; but here is a cause 
33* 



390 MOTIVES TO ENTIRE CONSECRATION 

which, having done all this, would yet hardly count its work 
begun ; which scatters these minor blessings as it advances 
to accomplish a good infinitely greater ; which can point to 
ignorance sitting at the feet of Christ, hordes of the wilder- 
ness converted into Christian churches ; the worshippers of 
demons made kings and priests unto God, and actually min- 
gling in the adorations of the temple above. But how much 
of all this, and what particular part of it, were you the means 
of originating or effecting ? And what are you now doing 
to augment these happy results?. What source of tears are 
you now laboring to dry up ? What particular form of evil 
is now engaging your attention and filling you with con- 
cern ? What object engaging your special and earnest 
supplication ? 

Science may talk of the future, may promise largely, and 
be sanguine of its useful results ; but here is a cause which 
makes all the wants and woes of the world its own, and will 
never count its work complete till they have all been removed 
and forgotten. On this cause, all the treasures of the uni- 
verse have been lavished, all creation is groaning and travail' 
ing in pain together for want of it, and all the voices of heaven 
and earth are urging you to take part in it. What are you 
doing for its promotion ? Is the utmost extent of your instru- 
mentality in its behalf a small donation in money, and occa- 
sionally a languid prayer? 

History may record her eventful eras, when all the powers 
of earth were drawn up in hostile array, and all its interests 
suspended on a single conflict. Such may be regarded to 
have been the case when the great question was to be decided 
by a single blow between Greece and Persia, whether freedom 
or slavery should be the future inheritance of mankind ; when 
the victory of Constantine determined whether paganism or 
Christianity should hold the throne of the Roman empire; 
when, on the plain of Tours, it was decided whether the 
Crescent should prevail over the Cross in the west as it had 
in the east — whether Imposture should drive the Truth from 
the earth ; and when, on the event of the Armada, it was to 
be decided whether Popery or Protestantism should prevail, 
whether the earth should belong to Christ or to Antichrist. 
But, here, all that is left of these ancient elements of conflict 
is marshalled anew ; every thing depraved and malignant is 
here found in conflict with every thing benevolent and holy, 
and the issue is to involve the final destiny of immortal 



TO THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 391 

myriads. Are you conscious of having caught the spirit of 
the contest ? of feeling how much may depend, under God, 
on your single arm ? and are you, accordingly, to be found at 
your post, and acquitting yourself as a good soldier of Jesus 
Christ? 

Eventful times and great enterprises may have produced 
extraordinary men ; men whose memory biography may have 
embalmed ; whose honors heraldry may have emblazoned ; 
whose likeness, art and genius may have taxed their powers 
to multiply ; whose fame is accounted so precious, that nations 
may have charged themselves with the office of guarding it ; 
and the youth of each succeeding generation may be taken 
to their tomb as to a shrine, and be taught to regard them as 
filling the place of a glorious ancestry, urging them by their 
example to an emulation of their noble deeds. But here is a 
cause which has ever been producing men " of whom the 
world was not worthy ; " men " whose names are in the book 
of life;" men " whose praise is in all the churches," kin- 
dling holy enthusiasm, and who, by their influence, are repro- 
ducing themselves in the useful lives of others; men who, 
" though dead, are yet speaking," speaking together, and 
saying, " Be ye followers of us, as we followed Christ." Are 
you heeding the exhortation ? Might it be fairly inferred from 
any thing visible in your conduct that you are living for the 
great object for which many of them cheerfully died ? that 
you sympathize with them in the intensity of their concern 
for the salvation of the world ? Philosophy may boast of her 
martyrs, and tell her disciples what severity of discipline, and 
what untiring patience and perseverance, the prosecution of 
her claims and projects require ; but here is an object which 
demanded the actual sacrifice of the Son of God, and which 
is ever demanding the unrelaxing and unqualified devotedness 
of all his followers in all succeeding times. What sacrifices 
are you making in its behalf? and in what do those sacrifices 
consist ? Here is an object which brings you into contact 
with more than prophets and apostles, and which requires 
you to imitate a higher example than that even of confessors 
and martyrs. By summoning you " to the help of the Lord," 
it calls you to act at his side, places you under the notice of 
his eye, and requires you to " follow his steps." Have you 
ever been seized with the hallowed ambition of copying his 
example ? Are you aspiring to win from his lips the " Well 



392 MOTIVES TO ENTIRE CONSECRATION 

done, good and faithful servant," which awaits each of his 
devoted followers, on their arrival in his presence above? 

Others may boast of comprehensive designs, and talk of 
final causes ; but here is the final cause itself — an end so 
great, that all other ends stand to it only in the relation of 
means — so lofty, that there is nothing higher — so glorious, 
that every thing in the universe is honored by serving it. 
The one point, the sole end, to which every thing in the 
government of God is tending, is, " to the praise of the glory 
of his grace ; " and to this point it is tending with the direct- 
ness and force of a univeral law. Every mite given, every 
Bible distributed, every missionary sent forth, every church 
planted, falls in with that stream of events, and forms a part 
of that vast combination of means, by which God is reducing 
and restoring all things unto himself. Even now, the agen- 
cies of Providence are urged into unusual activity — all things 
are rushing to that final issue. Delay to join in the march 
of mercy, and you will lose opportunities of honoring God, 
and of serving your race, such as never occurred to the 
church before, and can never be enjoyed by you again. Be 
indolent, covetous, self-indulgent now, and the very stones 
will cry out. Continue to live for yourself, and the universe 
will upbraid you — the perishing will point at and reproach 
you as accessory to their destruction — the Judge himself 
will say, " I never knew you." On the contrary, be faithful 
now, and the very trees of the field will clap their hands : 
live unto the Lord, and all things shall live for you, and be 
ready to serve you in his cause ; be entirely devoted to his 
claims, and others shall be moved by your example, and the 
world blessed by your influence, and Christ himself shall 
rejoice over you. Less than entire consecration has been 
tried for ages ; and the fatal result is to be seen in the thou- 
sands perpetually passing — passing at this moment — to the 
bar of God from regions where the sound of salvation has 
never been heard. If you sympathize with Christ, then, in 
the travail of his soul, you will from this time see what entire 
devotedness can do for their recovery. Moved by his exam- 
ple, you will look through your tears on a world perishing in 
its guilt ; and you will feel that you are never imitating him 
so much as by self-denying, painstaking endeavors for its 
salvation. Subdued by the tenderness of his claims, you will 
freely acknowledge that you are not your own ; that the same 



TO THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 393 

reasons which bind you to do any thing for Christ, bind you 
to do every thing in your power, and to do it in the best pos- 
sible manner ; that you are bought with a price which might 
well purchase the entire dedication of a whole universe of 
intelligent beings to all eternity. Affected and engrossed by 
the magnitude of his cause — the cause of the world's recov- 
ery — you will feel that to throw less than all your energies 
into its promotion is an insult to all the momentous interests 
which it involves. Not only, therefore, will you task your 
own powers in its behalf — you will task them partly in an 
earnest endeavor to move heaven and earth to join you. In 
a word, constrained by his love, you will " thus judge " — and 
never can you be said to be moved by his love except as you 
are thus judging, and laboriously acting on the judgment — 
" that if one died for all, then were all dead ; and that he 
died for all, that they who live should not henceforth live 
unto themselves, but unto him who died for them and rose 
again." Hasten, then, into his presence, fall down at his 
feet, and surrender yourself, and every thing you have, to his 
service. He will graciously accept the dedication ; and ten 
thousand ages hence you will be still praising him that you 
did so; and an unknown number will join in blessing him 
on your account. # 



INDEX 



PAGE. 

Abraham, holy agency of 76 

Activity, a means of usefulness 71 

Christian, final success of. . .265, 366 
Agency, Christian, divine origin of. ...82 

true character of 37 

America, aborigines of 259 

American Baptist Board of Missions, 

origin of 158 

Board of For. Missions, origin of. 158 

Angels, agency of 139 

holy activity of. 102 

interest of, in Christ's mediation. 101 
sympathy of, in man's salvation. .102 

Antioch, conduct of church at 93 

Apostles, conduct of, in the diffusion 

of the gospel 91 

manner in which they understood 

prophecy 135 

qualified and authorized to diffuse 

the gospel 79 

travels of 95 

Apostolic epistles, illustrative of the 

spirit of missions 97 

Arts, promoted by missionary efforts.. 169 

Asiatic churches, injunctions to 159 

Association, principle of moral 49 

Baptist Missionary Society, origin of. .156 

Basle, missionary seminary at <$&7 

Biography, right influence of, on Chris- 
tians 390 

Boyle, Hon. R., Christian zeal of 155 

Britain, extensive influence of 234 

political state of. 359 

temporal benefits of, from gospel.. 166 
British churches, influence of missions 

on 200 

Britons abroad, influence missions on. 218 

Central Africa, present state of 250 

Character, Christian, elevated by mis- 
sions 208 

weight of 378 

China, present state of 284 

Christ, anticipation of his glory 50 

character of 380 

devotedness of, to his engage- 
ments 79, 109 

influence of his advent on man . . .45 

intercessory prayer of 137 

irresistible claims of, on the de- 
votedness of his people 110 

jealousy of, in addressing his 

church 147 

kingdom of, gradually set up 137 

mediatorial right of 367 

pity of, for the lost world 136 

promise of his presence 139 

satisfaction of. in his conquest cf 

the world 143 

Christian, closeness of his identity 

with Christ 85 

fitness of. for usefulness 58 



PAGE 

Christian, motives for his activity. . . .144 

object of Christ in redeeming 373 

prayer of, for the world 86 

Christians, expectations of Christ from .81 
past conduct of, to be retrieved. . .353 

present responsibility of 112 

their means of usefulness 62 

union of, for the diffusion of the 

gospel 87 

Christendom, the divisions of 251 

Christianity, influence of, on individ- 
ual man 52 

means of its early extension 151 

temporal benefits afforded by 163 

tendency of, to form society 59 

Christian influence, prominence of, in 

the New Testament 83 

instrumentality, theory of. 52 

labor, impossibility of being lost.. 365 
Church Missionary Society, origin of. 156 
the completion of its triumphs . . .377 
decline of its devotedness and 

prosperity 149 

divine displeasure with the su- 

pineness of. 386 

duty of individual members of 387 

increase of its influence 106 

influence of unity in 63 

missionary constitution of 313 

present transition state of 362 

prosperity, arising from activity. .148 

separation of, from the world 60 

usefulness of 61 

views of, enlarged by missions. . .203 

Churches, the reformed 252 

Civilization, how produced by Chris- 
tianity 169 

Clean water, how sprinkled on the 

church 133 

Colonization, peculiar to Christianity .242 
Coming of Christ, scriptural import of 

the phrase 118 

Commerce, promoted by missions 197 

Compassion, a mean of usefulness.. . .71 
Consecration, Christian, importance 

of 308,343 

required by Jehovah 381 

Consistency, Christian, influence of. .377 

Conversion, triumphs of 188 

Covenant, new, character of 131 

Creation, anticipation of the deliver- 
ance of 50 

Cross of Christ, influence of. 51, 139 

David, tabernacle of, its reference to 

the church 131 

Dependence and influence, universal 

law of 37 

Devotedness, Christian, examples of. .361 

importance of 357 

Disunion among Christians, evils of. .304 
Dry bones, valley of 130 



INDEX. 



395 



PAGE. 

Edinburgh Missionary Society, origin 

of. 156 

Education, promoted by missions. 170, 186 
Emulation, Christian, promoted by 

missions 202 

Era, present, the commencement of a 

new 364 

European character, raised by mis- 
sions 196 

Evil, moral influence of introduction 

of 42 

France, naturalism of 252 

French Protestant Missionary Society, 

origin of 158 

Future, disclosures of the, made to the 

church 104 

General Baptist Missionary Society, 

origin of 158 

Gentiles, why first preached to by the 

apostles 135 

German Missionary Society, origin of. 156 

Germany, rationalism of 251 

Glasgow Missionary Society, origin of. 157 
God, character of, pledged for the suc- 
cess of the gospel 120 

eminently glorified by missions.. .219 
promises of, as to the success of 

his word 120 

Gospel, adaptation of, to the mind 53 

influence of its success 119 

perpetuity of the preaching of 136 

power of, illustrated by missions. .215 

published by an angel 139 

result of its publication 378 

withholding of, dishonor done to 

Christ 383 

Greek church, present state of 251 

Happiness, human, completion of.. . . .387 
Harvest, influence of Christians on the 

moral, 86 

of the world, how reaped by 

Christians 137 

Heathen, awfully dangerous state 

of 275, 357 

not to be neglected on account of 

the state of home 288 

readiness of, to receive the gospel. 360. 
Heaven, how fully prepared for the re- 
deemed 102 

the heathen prepared for by mis- 
sions 190 

History, encouragement given by, to 

Christian agency 235 

eventful eras of. 390 

Holy Spirit, agency of, in the church.. 82 
given for the diffusion of the gos- 
pel 88 

glory of his dispensation 123 

influence of, on man 46 

influence of, essential to useful- 
ness 64 

promise of his influence 82 

promise of, in connection with in- 
junctions to duty 119 

work of, to glorify Christ 83 

Hope, influence of, on Christian activ- 
ity 117 

Horsley, bishop, quoted on the rule of 

prophecy 119 



PAGE. 

Humanity promoted by Christian mis- 
sions — ]71 

Humility, Christian, vast importance 

of 310 

Idolatry abolished by missions 182 

Impending judgments, usefulness of. .133 

India, early missions in 153 

present state of 244, 260 

Infidelity, lessened by missions 212 

Influence, moral power of. 39 

Christian, constantly accumulat- 
ing 105 

mighty power of. 230 

prominence of, in the New 

Testament 83 

moral, stimulated by sin 45 

Instrumentality, Christian, theory of... 52 
holy, employed by the patriarchs. .75 

Jehovah, love of, to his church 79 

Jerusalem, conduct of the church at. . .93 
Jewish economy, adaptation of, to bless 

the world 77 

church, a type of the Christian. . . .78 

influence of 105 

separation of, from the world. .78 

Jews, awakening among 252 

conversion of, by the gospel 129 

society for the conversion of, ori- 
gin of 157 

Johnson, Dr. S., extract from 105 

Judgments, great, overruled for the 

salvation of the world 126 

Kingdom, establishment of the holy.. 141 

of Christ, certain progress of 134 

gradually set up 137 

Knowledge, a means of usefulness 65 

Laws, institution of, promoted by 

Christian missions 171 

Laymen, necessity of the missionary 

agency of 330 

Liberality, necessity of increased pe- 
cuniary 325 

Literature, promoted by missions 191 

London Missionary Society, origin of, . 156 

Man, dependence of, on others 38 

knowledge of, promoted by mis- 
sions 195 

Mediation effected by missionaries 174 

Millenarianism, opposition of, to Scrip- 
ture 118, 124 

Millenarians, mistakes of. 116 

objections of, to missions, refuted. 296 
Millennium, Christian expectation of.. 115 
Ministers, necessity of their increased 

attention to missions 321 

Missionaries, earliest, sent from Brit- 
ain 152 

Missionary activity, origin and history 

of. 150 

efforts, success equal to 222, 261 

enterprise, summary of 161 

temporal benefits of. 162 

information, importance of the 

diffusion of. 315 

societies, tabular statement of. . . .161 

influence of their origin 157 

spirit, existence of, in early ages. .151 
existence and progress of, in 
the churches 254 



396 



INDEX. 



PAGE. 

Missions, benefits of, beyond calcula- 
tion 179 

Christian, history of 148 

church constituted for 267 

conviction of the church as to its 

duty towards 216 

evidence furnished by, of the truth 

of Christianity 213 

importance of the due appreciation 

of 311 

influence of, on the increase of 

the Romish church 150 

influence of science on 258 

motives to engage in 348 

necessity of, to precede civiliza- 
tion 279 

not impracticable 276 

objections to, answered 272 

obligations not lessened by want 

of funds or union 293 

peculiar advantages derived from. 223 

Protestant origin of 151 

providential facilities for 258 

Morality promoted by missions. . .172, 182 

Moravian missions, origin of 155 

Mosaic dispensation, agency of 76 

Nations, existence of, preserved by 

missions 173 

Native agency, success of. 231 

Netherlands Miss. Society, origin of. .158 

New creation, the 142 

New England, Christianity planted in. 154 
Opposition to the gospel, destruction of.141 

Parental influence, corruption of. »43 

Paul, conduct of, in reference to the 

gospel 91 

self-denial of 92 

Peace, promoted by missions 188 

Persevering activity, a means of use- 
fulness 71 

Philanthropy, worldly, inefficiency of.389 
Piety, importance of an increase of. . .316 

Prayer, a means of usefulness 73 

increase of, for missions 263, 270 

need of a larger increase of 335 

spirit of, prompted by missions. . .2b3 
Preaching, importance of, in the con- 
version of the world 135 

Property, a means of usefulness 69 

consecrated by Christians to mis- 
sions 206 

Prophecy, favorable influence of, on 

missions 265 

influence of, on the church 115 

wise reserve of 121 

Providence, dispensations of, favorable 

to missions 357 

Redemption, claim of 370 

harmony of, with the divine mind. 48 

its divine origin 47 

Relationship, a means of usefulness. . .66 

Religion, cause of, but one 203 

Remed3' for selfishness, how provided.. 47 



PAGE 

Renovation of the world, an object of 

ancient expectation 136 

Responsibility, extent of moral 42 

Rhenish Missionary Society, origin of. 157 

Roman greatnesSj its character 105 

Romish church, influence of missions 

on the increase of. 150 

present state of. 251 

Russia, early establishment of Chris- 
tianity in 153 

Sabbath, observance of, promoted by 

missions 189 

Satan, conquest of, over man 42 

subdued by Messiah 46 

Schlegel, extract from 105 

Science, inefficiency of 390 

promoted by missions 191 

Self-denial, a means of usefulness 70 

Self-examination, importance of 303 

Selfishness, its origin 43 

remedy for 46 

Shipping interest, promoted by mis- 
sions 198 

Slavery, destroyed by missions. . .176,180 

Smith, Dr. J. P., extract from 114 

Society for Promoting Christian Knowl- 
edge, origin of 155 

for Propagating Christian Knowl- 
edge, origin cf. 155 

for Propagation of the Gospel,. . . . 155 

Speech, a menns of usefulness 65 

Stone, progress of the living. 140 

S wartz, character of 196 

Swiss, the, originators of Protestant 

missions 154 

Tapu, abolished by missions 177 

Temple, erection of holy 141 

the ancient, type of the Christian 

and the church 375 

Truth, evils of partial views of. 299 

moral influence of 49 

Union, a means of usefulness 73 

Christian, importance of 322 

Christian, promoted by missions.. 205 
Universe, dependence and influence, 

the law of. 37 

. Western Africa, mission of Friends to . 158 

Wisdom, holy increase of. 318 

Woman, rank of, elevated by missions. 178 

Work of Christ, relation of, to man 45 

World, entire conquest of 392 

effect produced by surveying it. . .376 
moral aspect of, favorable to mis- 
sions 256,269 

moral state of 381, 385 

pernicious influence of, on man.. . .55 
political state of, favorable to mis- 
sions 240 

present awful state of 354, 357 

result of the conversion of. 383 

Young men, appeal to 367 

Zeal, Christian, necessity for an in- 
crease of 333 



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